XP Mysteries Part 2

Tell me why, after all these years, is it so damned hard to move an XP installation from one motherboard to another? With Linux I just pull out the hard drive, install it in the new machine and perhaps reconfigure the graphics. With XP I have to dig out my XP CD, do a "Repair" install, re-enter product keys, and then reinstall every XP patch since that CD was cut - and hope with crossed fingers that everything still works. Last time I tried it it took several days of post "repair" repair for obscure system problems (and I mean really obscure) that showed up.

This kind of nightmare is exactly why people are always reinstalling Windows from scratch which maybe isn't such a bad thing after all given the amount of Windows rot that creeps into any system not maintained with an iron fist.