Re: Pain
I know it's fashionable to diss WinXP (hinting current Windows is perfect...), but IMHO and for what it's worth, WinXP was peak Windows from a user's point of view. It was easy to master, things were all in logical places (like settings in - Settings (go figure!), it didn't take too many unwanted initiatives, and you could easily configure it to suit your needs.
There is no point retorting that you couldn't run it for over a month without a reboot, this isn't something a workstation ever needs to do. Also the "you have to reinstall it once a year" bit is probably due to you people constantly installing/uninstalling all kind of junk. I know of several XP installations which have worked just fine for decades (10 years and more) without needing reinstalling. It just happens they were task dedicated workstations and users didn't mess with them.
Win7 was already far on the slippery "we know what's best for you" dumbing down slope, XP's straightforward settings had already started to be replaced by idiotic unsuitable "wizards", and fundamental things like the file explorer had been rendered more messy and difficult to use by 1. hiding vital information (like the little crosses to unfold folders), 2. increasing as much as possible the noise level by cluttering the window with things which had no reason to be there and you couldn't hide.
/steps off soapbox