Some time ago I decided I'd had enough of Vista and would go back to XP. After 2 BSODS and explorer crashing when I tried to rename a file, I decided now was the time.
I haven't had a BSOD for quite some time; I'd guess a driver is to blame. I've had my share of BSODs in XP anyways, so I'm not sure XP is all that different in that regard.
But I guess that doesn't matter now that you've made the switch. I plan on sticking with Vista myself. It has worked well for me.
Oh, and games like UT2004 (a favourite of mine) romps along at 2-300 fps instead of the miserly 75-80 Vista can manage.
As if going above your monitor's refresh rate is going to make any difference. Your monitor can't draw fast enough to keep up with 300 fps.
Dunno why it would slow down so much, though - is this with the latest drivers?
Are you sure you want to shutdown the computer?
This one I count as very helpful because I've had many a program try to shutdown my computer without my permission
.
Once all of the software you want is installed, those prompts pretty much go away anyways.
Never used the Start menu much in either Vista or XP, so changes to it really don't bother me that much. Someday they'll make it useful. I personally don't see how it's any sort of improvement over Windows 3, and to this day I have a set of folders on my desktop instead of using the Start menu.