It's funny how much people these days think defrag does.
Defrag does ONE thing, and ONE thing only. It speeds up your hard disk access a bit by making sure files are sequential.
It's not going to fix all those driver issues windows gets, won't fix the crappy registry, won't remove all those hidden programs that start up automatically making it take 20 minutes to boot. It won't remove all the IE add-on bars that somehow got installed with some other software.
It won't remove all the spyware/adware/viruses.
Problem is most PCs that come with windows, also come with the manufacturers own selection of 'shady programs', trials, adware, etc etc designed to make them some extra money.
Get an Acer. My TravelMate came with no software other than Windows and stuff necessary to operate the hardware (drivers, DVD burner, touchpad enhancements, user guide, etc.) I've needed to reinstall the OS once in its 3-year lifetime.
It helps that I don't install software lightly. I do most of my development in VMWare under a Linux guest OS, and typically run only Winamp/Gaim/Firefox/SSH/uTorrent under Windows. The one time I did need to reinstall the OS was because I'd been going through a bunch of different programs for movie playback/decompression and some of them didn't play very well together.
Not sure I agree that a defrag will fix the issues. I will say that running anti-virus and not clicking on every link that says you've won $50k does wonders...that and using firefox over IE.
I agree; the users that complain about Windows stability (the ones that aren't Mac using journalists) are the type that install sleazy toolbars and slipshod freeware.
It's like having sex with everyone in the art department and wondering why you have herpes.
No. Reinstalling Windows is recommended by kids on forums - everyone else knows that a defrag suffices.