Not at all. Some of the obvious changes may seem of little improvement, the environment is definitely a different engine.
The “Windows 7” like environment is running in a sort of virtualisation. Like Windows XP Mode is in Windows 7, to give you another hint:Windows XP mode is not supported in Windows 8.
The last hint is:You can’t revert an upgrade from Windows 7 back to Windows 8, you have to reinstall Windows 7 to get Windows 7 back.
Rescan midi devices:Does that option also work in Windows XP?