BEagle, things move on so legacy starts becoming a problem, but replacing WinXP with Win7 (or something else) is hardly a "shiny toy" approach. The fact is it's old and approaching the end, and as SD says, Win7 is considerably better than XP.
I've been blocking most ads for years, back when they first stared using animated content because it was annoying, so I don't disagree with your views there.