Re:Upgrading must be for a reason (Score -1)

"but also performance drops (mostly network related) and no, I'm not alone in seeing these things either."

If its the same issue I've had (which nailed every vista instance I know of) its the network AutoTuning. Made a massive difference to everything - outlook, office, browsing.

Try:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled

Full posting at:
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2008/04/18/turn_off_vistas_autotuning_to_prevent_browser_slowdown-2.html