In Win7 everything is available in the same single mode. You don't need the charms bar because you have those controls either directly in the Start menu, or in the Control Panel. All those mouse gestures are a self-inflicted pain. On a PC they are not necessary. On a mobile device - perhaps; and that's why I always insisted that Microsoft made a huge mistake when they chose to gut their desktop cash cow to support the mobile market. They should have made two OSes, as they ended up doing anyway.
Well I mean I had to relearn the start menu itself, especially how to get to network connections. Homegroups work a lot better on 8 as well from my experience.