Task bar and tabs
Yes, this was my first thought too. There may be a difference, though, if one uses many Explorer windows (or many windows of other applications). The task bar can become crowded soon (I normally use two lines of it), and Windows 7 starts to group the windows of the same application. Then, you can move the mouse pointer over the group, wait a little bit until Windows displays the members of the group, move over the desired one, and select. I believe this does very similar to the tabbed window. I think it is a matter of personal preference.
In general, one has to make decisions when moving from one version of the operating system (or Office, or any other application) to the other. We can either try to work the same way as we did in the old version, and try to configure the new software to look like the old one, or adjust our behaviour and ways of usage to the new (and changed) features and possibilities of the new version. I have tried both approaches over the time, and I cannot tell which one is better. Nowadays, I usually switch to the new style and interface quickly because I believe that the little extra time that I invest in learning the new ways pays off at the end of the day.
