if you are getting Explorer crashes, you might try to find out if you have anything in the system that might try to display the contents of certain folders in a different way, or any other extensions to Explorer.
I'm unaware of any such Explorer shell "extensions". For example I've not added any proprietary right-click "open-withs" and my preview for any jpg/gif/png graphics is bog standard "as she came".
What I
do have is an extensive folder/sub-folder/sub-sub folder structure to segregate dissimilar subjects. However that identical nested tree structure was never a problem with Win 98, Win XP, Win Server 2003, Vista but Win 7 cannot cope.... (apparently).
Until such time as Microslop acknowledges and addresses this fundamental annoyance, my sincere recommendation would be to stick with Vista. A properly patched Vista gives few problems. Any hiccups normally clear up on a reboot.
Another classic issue is antivirus programs that install a firewall.
I use windows firewall.