Revamping with Windows 7 good or.....?

I am all excited about my new laptop with 4GB RAM and 500 Gb Hard disk. Cant get better than this at least right now.
Then I receive a message which says you cant use Internet explorer 9 with anything else except Windows 7 or Vista.
Now having used Vista for 3 years I dont even realise that people still use XP.
Microsoft a great organisation and I am all for it and it amazes me no end how they keep creating new software solutions and products and force you into a situation where all the old material becomes redundant.
Good for microsoft bad for us.
I have this whole lot of cd's and games(from Windows 95 days) which just does'nt work anymore so eventually what are we to do with all that? The whole purpose of a CD/ DVD was longevity in terms of data safety so when the programs associated become redundant what is the use of longevity?
When one window closes does a door open or is it another WINDOWS?