This is to get Scott's attention to update his article before more people screw themselves... Thanks Arthur Tvikrok for pointing out KB 299958 that Regclean is incompatible with:

Microsoft Office 2003, All Editions
Microsoft Office XP (Setup)
Microsoft Office 2000 (Setup)

and has been specifically declared unsupported by MS.

Further, this list needs to note where there are differences between Win95/98/ME/XP, or that it applies to all platforms. In general it does, but you have to be clear. For example, XP Home default users don't use a password to login, and may not know that extra users they create are administrators too - so how to enable passwords & check privileges... Another person commented that many apps require Admin privileges - this is true and you should make them aware of that.

Why did you omit a section to help them recover from crashes and data corruption ?
All computer flavors need a backup & restore/recovery plan for:
- file loss or corruption
- application config/install corruption
- OS/System corruption
- hard disk failure (or laptop theft)

Surely there's a good link to point to that discusses options for the above per platform. Things like making sure XP System Restore point has been created (which doesn't happen on OEM pre-installs when you finish setup), Automatic System Restore diskettes created when you do a full-system backup (only external USB or writeable DVD drives can typically hold the backup files), and/or simple ntbackup backups for data subsets. Or 3rd party software like Norton Ghost which requires a bootable floppy if you want to use it to recover your hard disk from a complete failure using a new one HD.

Others have suggested disabling services. But my experience is that this breaks applications, or the apps just re-enable the required services. So I'd stay away from all but the simplest to disable and reenable. I would recommend making sure that your firewall isn't set on "medium" security or hasn't allowed inbound access to ports open by "trusted" programs.

I do like the list as a start though. Thanks !

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