Alternative to Vista Windows Explorer ?

Has anyone had any success with either running the XP version of Windows
Explorer on Vista or using a third party file explorer ?
Vista's explorer continues to be one of the really annoying "features"
of the OS and we would like to be able to use an alternative program. I
do understand that VS has good programming tools with which to implement
the file capability, but don't want to have to develop a program that
may already be available.
Thank you.
Robbie