@magicalclick: Actually it's probably related to the slim USB image of Windows 7 I created. The USB image was a carry over from my installation on a 60GB Agility 2 SSD. I've since upgraded to a 120GB Vertex 3 SSD, but haven't created a new USB image.

Another thing, I couldn't install IE9 before I replaced the uxtheme libraries.

And about the Windows Experience, my graphics card (mind you this is a laptop) returns 4.9. Everything else is > 6. The graphics card is a GeForce 8600M GT.