The only thing I miss about XP believe it or not is Picture & Fax Viewer and it's ability to play .gifs instead of IE. Plus the ability to use Unfreeze to create a .gif
I didn't have hard time with Vista because I done the same thing I'm doing now with 8. I read a lot of negative opinions about it, a few positive ones which many times gave information & tips about the things everyone was negative about. I had a Wacom at the time so I decided to buy Vista after reading about handwriting recognition.
Then 7 came along. With a lot of positive reviews. A friend bought new pc with 7, dropped it off unopened and had me remove the trialware and install SpywareBlaster, ZoneAlarm and Avast. 7 is just so fluid compared to Vista & I had to have it.
Now I'm following the 8 polls here, absorbing the positive info and following links which lead to more positive links.
Like it or not, Metro is the future. It may be designed more for touch but it allows
mouse & keyboard.