My unsolicited opinion: Bite the bullet and find other software that does what you want and works with Windows 8. Libre Office is a good, free choice to replace Wordperfect, Lotus and Excel. Gimp is a possible free replacement for Photoshop.
Otherwise stay with the XP you have, keep your anti-virus up to date and be careful what you click on.
Windows 8 can be a bit difficult to use compared to Windows 7. It can be tamed though.
Start Button:
If you install
Classic Shell (free) or
Stardock's Start8 ($4.99) or similar software then you can have the Start button as it was in Windows 7 and boot directly to the Desktop. You can still play with Metro stuff but it's not forced on you.
Windows 7 Gadgets:
Windows 7 Gadgets are also available if you want them:
8GadgetPack - Gadgets for Windows 8
UAC:
I find UAC extremely annoying. If you do too then to (mostly) disable
UAC, Press
Windows key + R to open the Run window.
Type
msconfig and press
Enter.
Click on the
Tools tab.
Select
Change UAC settings and click
Launch.
Move the slider all the way to the bottom then click OK.
Some parts of UAC will still be alive, so to completely disable it you need to change a registry key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Key:
EnableLUA
Set the value to
0
You cannot use any Metro Apps or the App Store when UAC is disabled. If you've gone this far, you can also disable all hot corners so you will not get any of the Windows Charms popups. Just check the Classic Shell and Start8 options to do this.