Mav, one of the great things about this upgrade is, with the click of one button you can "uninstall" easily.  MSFT has a lot of support and updates too.  So far so good.  I absolutely love it.  Went to Illyia's and looked through the fractals, this is what used to lock my ass up good and proper... no problem.  I haven't locked up once.

 

Perhaps your friend doesn't have all the power he/she might need.  Windows XP needs 128 RAM and probably 20GB of Hard Drive, but I've got more than that so maybe that's why mine is doing so well.  Everyone I talk to has recommended it and had great success with it, so I think your friend is an isolated case.  Anyway, we'll find out!