Well, to me the 'disadvantage'  ( one atleast ) to XP is the file/program arrangement, hardly at all different than Win 3.1 , if you remember 3.1, XP is about the same. Hard to find programs, as they seem to be mobile and go someplace to hide. I'm sure you  could take the time to learn how to defeat this severe problem but I haven't yet purchased XP, as that was the first thing that turned me off. MS went back to about 1990 and used some of ver 3.1 features , which would be oblivious to those who never used it, " the more the things change, the more they stay the same ".