The trouble is not Microsoft so much as vendors like Symantec and McAfee who will stop supporting XP entirely, the way they stopped supporting Windows 2000, which is still a perfectly viable operating system except you can't get anti-virus software for it anymore.

I've tried a lot of things for this problem. I got the most dramatic improvement from B12, folic acid, calcium-magnesium-zinc. Also, your mind may just be over-confident and getting lazy. Just make an effort to memorize things, don't assume they will just stick. Like you did back in college, study the things you need to remember. Try something like SuperMemo.