It depends on how much of a problem this is for you. The old task-bar can be cut down somewhat, which may temporarily work for you. To revert to the older style:
Right Click on any open area on the task-bar
Choose Properties from the menu
From the Task-bar Drop-down menu, you'll want to choose "Never Combine" (Which will make every window show up as a separate button on the Task-bar).
Or, you could chose "Combine when Task-bar is full". Which does just like it says.
Now you should see the buttons show up with text labels like you are probably used to.... but in the Windows 7 Style (Dock)
If you chose the "Use the small Icons" Check-box in the properties screen, the Task-bar will actually shrink down to look similar to "Vista".
The only problem is, that the "Pinned" icons are still sitting on the Task-bar, which isn't the same as Vista or XP.
But you can easily remove all of them by right clicking and choosing "Unpin" this program from the Task-bar. And now the Task-bar looks and works very similarly to Windows Vista or XP.