In general, this is the advice I'm seeking - what are the "best-in-class" applications that a home computer owner needs? McAfee and AdAware seem to be doing a good job of keeping my computer free of viruses, spyware and the like, but then again, how can I be sure? I mean, the machine generally seems to be running fine, but I'd like a little more assurance.

Also, I can boil my computer useage down to a handful of programs, so I'd love to shed all of the "junk" programs or programs I don't ever use (mostly the handful of stuff that was pre-installed on the machine by Dell). I have no idea how to do this without risking corrupting the things that I really want to save and that really work for me.

Finally, is there a way to migrate various programs over to my external hard drive without corrupting them? I know how to move data, pictures, and music, but what about full programs? Is there a simple way to shift something like Flight Simulator over to the Western Digital drive without completely fouling it up?