Help me make my new XP install less evil

[Smeghead]

So I had to "upgrade" to XP, rather against my will. Long story. Anyway, what should I be looking out for? What "features" need to be disabled either for security reasons or because they'll annoy the hell out of me? How do I do so? I remember reading something about some problem with Windows Messanger recently - ring a bell? Please, share with me the accumulated XP wisdom of this group.

Impression so far: it froze during the inital setup process the first time I booted it up. I had to take it back to the shop, where they futzed with it for a couple of hours before they could get it to work. That's not a good way to start. On the other hand, it found and adapted itself to my cable modem without a single piece of instruction from me, which was rather impressive.

But it's reminded me why I loathe switching OSs. I like to have a machine that works the way I expect it to work, then I just never touch it again for as long as possible. I've been reinstalling crap all evening, trying to keep and transfer as much data as possible, and desperately trying to stave off the flow of crapware that comes with everything these days.

Oh, hey, that reminds me - I have a specific question. I have my old hard drive, which had Win98SE on it, still in this machine. I was using Outlook Express. Now, logically, my big piles of saved emails should still be on that disk somewhere. Is there anyway to get at them? I'd like to transfer them all to my new OE installation. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.