Upgrade to user-unfriendly IE8

I only upgraded from MS IE6 to IE8 now, since a particular web page
I regularly visit doesn't render properly any longer in IE6.

Other than being slower to respond compared to IE6, I have a hard time
getting used to it because it cannot be customized any longer the way
IE6 could - unless I'm missing something?
For instance, the MENU bar is unmovable now, even though it has the
little bar one the left that previously could be dragged up or down.

I'm only able to move the COMMAND bar, but this doesn't help since it
cannot be moved next to the MENU bar to free up extra space.

The worst part is that the BACK and FORWARD buttons are fixed on the
far left side. I had them on the right side above the scroll bar before,
which is the most logical place to be so one doesn't have to move the
mouse back and forth across the entire page after using the scroll bar.

There are other annoying quirks, such as the mouse pointer dropping
to the bottom of the screen after clicking on certain functions.

My question again is - am I missing something, is there perhaps a hidden
menu / way to better customize IE8? Does anyone know if IE9 follows
the same user-unfriendly design? Thanks...