After 20 years using Windows platforms from 3.1 through to Vista, I have to admit that Microsoft have finally achieved the impossible: an attractive, speedy and usable interface. Search is fast, features are easy to find, customisation is simple, font installation is intuitive and it generally looks good. Microsoft is generally depicted as sclerotic giant, left behind as the cloud/google/facebook/twitter wave rolls on, but perhaps there is life in the old dog.