OEM W7 Clean Install

I have a used Optiplex 745. [xp pro]. No original disks. Decided to Upgrade to W7 via an OEM disk from Amazon. 6Hrs Later I'm happy to report success. Computer Froze after Boot as soon as the "Start globe" saw a mouse. Screen went green or orange or blue and system Froze. Culprit? a service called [Desktop Window Manager Session Manager]. I booted in "Safe", turned everthing off and with brute force found the offending item. Right now I'm waiting for 147 updates from MS. At least I don't have to sit and reboot any more.

I put this out there

1. Because without msconfig I could never have gotten on the net to get to dell  to figure out what drivers were needed or  even if that was the problem.
2. Searches at Dell MS and 7Forums were ineffective. [did point at msconfig]
3. Some of us need to be able to mirror older systems [like what the government uses] which means Office 10 and W7 rather than O13 and W8.
4. if you read this and put off changing from xp as long as my employer has...it's not hopeless.
5. Finally: if you don't have a system image you can restore...you probably will by this weekend.

Scratch takes time.