right click the icon, turn on activity animation.. and the globe is to let you know if your connected to the net. Which is pretty much what you wanted out of the icon, wasnt it?

worst controller? maybe sony are just lazy, but three generations of console with the same controller begs to differ..

Intels 3d graphics has been a joke for the longest time. While they might be getting better every year, they still have a lot of catching up to do.

I find it very rare these days the need to reinstall windows. Run malwarebytes in safe mode, maybe use eset online scanner if its a serious infection, run hijackthis and remove any extra cruft and done. Seriously, virus and malware scanners are pretty effective if you use the right ones. I hardly have to google infections anymore for instructions on how to manually remove them.
Or I could spend 2-4 hours reinstalling windows, office, drivers, trying to get various program settings the way they were before, and inevitably miss something and get a call later about how such and such is in a different spot/isn't the same as it was before, and a not so happy customer.
The only times I have actually needed to reinstall windows for a customer is if a bunch of system files are damaged and the thing won't boot. And the thing about windows getting slower over the years is hardly noticeable in my opinion. Most computers just need the shit cleaned out of their startup entries/more ram.