Recently the topic of installing new programs and codecs has come up a couple of times. And everbody seems very hesitant to install anything new on their computers. It is certainly understandable, the more crap you have on your computer, the slower and more unstable it gets. But why?

How come every program thinks it so important that it needs to run in the background at all times? And how come Windows hasn't matured enough that it can solve all of the conflicts that new drivers, programs and codecs cause?

It's very frustrating! I just bought a new computer a few days ago and I'm afraid to put anything on it, . Programs don't always cause problems at first so it's so hard to diagnose what is causing crashes and conflicts. And I don't want my new computer sitting around with nothing on it. Either way, it's a paper weight now or later, I guess.