Yeah... turn off all the visual candies in Windows 7 (Microsoft name "Aero Peek"), your computer's performance is immediately boosted by a factor of two. LOL
Right click on My Computer, go to Properties. On the left click "Advanced system settings". Under the Advanced Tab, click the Performance "Settings" button, select "Adjust for best performance". Next - Right click on my computer and go to "Manage" (I run everything in the uber-admin mode so you may need to "Run as Administrator"). Under Manage go to Services and Applications. Expand the Services section and search for Themes. Double click Themes and change the startup type to "Disabled" and click Stop. Your computer should look exactly like Classic Windows AND all those aero bubbles & things are turned off. I find W7x64 to be much more user friendly to XPx64. I don't find any performance differences outside W7 simply being so much easier to use and install that I can't see anyone going back after installing W7 once. FWIW, I don't own any W7x86 (32-bit) licenses, everything is 64-bit so I'm not sure how 32-bit W7 compares to 32-bit XP. I'd imagine its probably the same thing if setup properly.
I see you don't have quick launch turned on. If you google "win 7 quick launch" there are plenty of tutorials available.
Recently installed a second (HP) printer on my Linux home network. No driver installation, auto configured, a few seconds to make it accessible to all users and machines on the net. All done.
Notice the bar across the top of the screen? I don't even have a monitor or a keyboard hooked up to that machine. Its remote desktop only with 8GB RAM and two X5450 CPUs. It runs simulations and pulls data only. If I wanted to look at pretty pictures I'd buy a Mac. IMHO screensavers/Desktop backgrounds are for people who don't have anything up on their screens all day and want to look cool.