Lt Major Burns, wow thats some list there
You let it all out. Well I can definitly be sympathetic towards some...
The spyware and virus problem is definitly big, but I'll tell you what I do or use and maybe that might be good for you as well. For antivirus, I either use AVG Free edition from
www.grisoft.com or use Bitdefender Free edition from bitdefender.com. Both work very well and have low CPU usage. For spyware, I use Adaware personal edition as my primary, Spybot search and destroy once in a while and last resort for very stubbon hijacks and things.. something called Hijackthis. That last one you gotta be careful because it just really shows installed IE items and startup items. Well you'll know when you look at it.
I think the install uninstall problem might be the same for both platforms no? I've installed things in OSX that have left items behind in Libraries..etc. Granted that is easier to clean up than a left behind .dll or an orphaned registry key. Still I dont think it will cause any issues leaving it behind...it will just cost a few K of disk space. I dont install or uninstall very often to be honest. I usually do a full install the exact way I want, then ghost the system. If I'm ever unhappy about anything, I restore my ghost...
Weirdness in terms of applications quitting and things might still be a memory issue. I'd run Memtest86 which can be downloaded as an ISO and burned. Its a bootable CD and will scan the memory. I'd go through at least 10 passes.... Also make sure the CPU is not getting hotter than high 60's low 70's under full load temperatures (celcius of course
)
I dont use Firefox because I find it a bit slow but I kinda like IE - mostly for its speed I must admit. I like activeX as well for its convenience, but I'm careful about what to allow to install. I've adjusted my security settings to prompt me for any activeX installs.
As for defragging. I hope you're running NTFS. I'm sure you are. Anyway I dont know how often a single drive has to be defragged because I run two drives and well to be honest, they are very fast so any defragmentation I dont even feel so maybe thats why it doesnt bother me ( Both my C & D drives are 15,000RPM U160 scsi drives ).
I dont know if any of that is of any use..probably not, but the memory thing I'd check into for sure!!!