ifelse

Thanks for the feedback, Kafkaesqui.

“If a theme is using index.php for more than just the “home” page, they might have issues with your code.”
Hopefully, the first step that I added in the post (making a copy of index.php and renaming it to home.php) should make that a non-issue as home.php should only be used for the front page.

However, if anyone doesn’t want to retain a home.php page as well, then Kafkaesqui use of the is_home conditional will work perfectly well in the index.php.

BTW, if there’s something else which I’ve overlooked however, feel free to point it out:-)

“Is there any way of getting the home-link to appear only on the underlying pages?”
Try this:
<?php if(!is_home){?>
<li><a href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?>">Home</a></li>
<?php }?>

I suspect that it’s due to the following line in your post:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system

Try adding the following line to your style.css:
.entrybody p {
margin-top:8px;
margin-bottom:16px;
overflow:hidden;
}

There is no way to make a dynamic site (blog or CMS) without PHP code. PHP is a dynamic language which uses queries, commands, etc. to display information.
That’s far from true. There are many blog/CMS which are based on a true templating system in which the underlying driving code and template design code are fully segregated. I, myself, designed such a system back in the days before WP.

Whilst both approaches have their pros and cons (and the fact that I’m using WP myself means that I’m not adverse to WP approach), to state that such is the only solution is a bit of a misnomer.

That said, let’s go back to the OP’s queries.
a) It would be extremely unlikely that there will be any change in this area. You’ll have to assess whether this is something that you can live with. With regards to security, appropriate assignation of user_levels should mitigate any such risk.
b) They’re slightly cryptic but it’s well documented Have a look at the codex and if you have any queries, we’ll try and help out.

User levels 8, 9 and 10 have exactly the same level of capabilities (see Codex). Hence, the ideal approach would be what Sushubh suggested and leave admin for emergencies and instead set up multiple accounts with level 8 (including yourself).

the_permalink echoes the permalink url. I think what you’ll need is get_permalink()

Rereading what I wrote, it sounds a bit harsh. Just to make clarify things, that was general advice and not directed at you specifically.