Welcome to the home of xpk. The long and confusing life of the OS left where it was supposed to be in version 3, so instead of a 4, I've chosen to go back in time, pull out 2, and update it starting where I left off. Enter xpk2-2.
The first difference you'll notice is in the installation program itself. If you've installed Windows 2000 before, you might recognize your old (and faster) friend. The non-themed, non-flashy (and non-advertising) installation actually runs a little faster, and lets you spend less of your valuable time installing and more time using.
Next, you'll see that the configuration is much more straightforward. Just choose a few key things, like a name for your computer, password, users, etc. and you're done. After that, it installs a few commonly needed programs, and gets rid of a few extra ones nobody really uses or wants (if you must, you can install these later - I've never met somebody who missed them.)
Upon the first boot, you'll notice a warning about rebooting in sixty seconds. This is "cleanup" time. A step in the right direction that Microsoft missed. Also, the theme is not the one you might be used to. It's a far more cleaned up, streamlined version. It's called "reluna". You, of course, have other options if you wish. After the first cleanup, there is a second, 15-second long cleanup. This is to get rid of all of the icons you normally see on a desktop, as well as some from the startmenu. Those icons add clutter and are almost never used.
So, if you're uncomfortable with getting rid of things, or if you just don't like needing to re-configure every time you install, give it a shot eh?