I use Windows 7, and I configure the task bar to XP-style non-stacked oblong buttons, I use Classic Start Menu to get an XP style menu - I absolutely loathe the Vista and 7 start menus - and I've just about completely given up on Windows Explorer, and mostly moved my file management to Cygwin bash in the terminal.
My strategy for dealing with MS changing Windows is to use non-MS software and isolate myself from them.
Does the classic Start menu have a search box? I don't think I'd willingly give up the ability to just type what I want and not ha e to navigate those ridiculously long menus.
Yeah it does. It is a relief that the search actually finally works in win7 so no one has to care about the uselessly horrible menus and dialogs fixing the control panel.
On space constrained displays like laptops, I prefer the space maximizing Windows Classic theme, regardless of Windows version. I also like the thought that I'm not wasting any processing cycles on visual candy, even if it probably doesn't make much of a difference.
