emacs21.3 issues on windows

[GGarramuno]

I upgraded from 20.7 to 21.3 just recently and I found a lot of
horrible new config problems.

out that

a) On 21.3, the windows version of emacs now opens files using
microsoft's horrible file requester dialog window.
Can anyone tell me how can I revert to the old behavior of using
find-file (surprisingly, the hotkey C-x C-f works correctly avoiding
the windows file requester)?

b) In 21.3, the buffers menu is now horribly stuck in the middle of
other menus.  Is there a way to revert it back to being the first menu
on the left?

c) Using:
(set-face-foreground 'default           "white")
(set-face-background 'default           "black")
(set-cursor-color "red")
in my .emacs file makes the cursor disappear, as if the
set-cursor-color setting was not being taken into account.