I soon got fed up with the mis-match IE7 interface and uninstalled it, however I was left with IE7 icons and such like which was a pain in the arse. It didn't seem to be a cache issue or anything like that so since I felt like it anyway I reformatted/reloaded back to XP SP2 with IE6SP2.
Firefox has always worked well for me also, and there are some nice add-ons out there which work well.
I also had Windows Media Player 11 for a little while and again, it was totally out of place on XP. Not to mention the functionality had changed in a way which meant I didn't know to use it properly!
So again back to WMP9 pending 10 if I feel like it.
What IE7 needs in my mind is some form of skin or interface option which gives you something resembling previous versions. The interface changes for me just don't fit in with XP and don't make my browsing experience any easier.
At least the last time I used firefox it still resembled a more conventional browser with proper menus and toolbars.
/rant