David,
All the answers above are very good, but there is one thing more that you can do with the registry. Once you get everything like you wnat it, do an export full registry and either put the file on another hard drive, CD, or DVD. That way you have a full backup of your working registry in case you should mess up. I have never had a virus or any spyware get into my computer, but every time I log offline I do several checks for any new files, anything that has changed and a pile of other things. Also about once a week I run full virus scans and clean out all the hidden folders that contain internet files that have been dumped into them.
Ron
