"Windows programs love to make themselves the dominant monkey on
your system, and like all dominant monkeys they fling poop: placing
icons on your desktop and quick start menu, making themselves the
default for whatever you want to do, and opening themselves up
automatically. Load iTunes and at every startup you get hit in the
face with QuickTime, a load of monkey dung in your system tray
taking up resources whether you need it or (usually) not.
"And that's just the stuff you WANT to run. Windows is also
vulnerable to stuff you don't want. No Windows system is complete
without a firewall to keep bad stuff out and an anti-virus program
to catch stuff as it gets in. (I've included the links to my
favorite Windows-protecting software--not to encourage you to stay
in Microsoft World but just to show you I'm on the up and up here,
and to help protect ypu till I persuade you to make the Big
Switch.)"