Originally Posted by Mixture
For the vast majority of non-technical people who use computers in a personal context, starting fresh from a clean slate after a major event would do them a lot of good !
Rubbish. My XP and Win 7 had/have more stuff on board than some would have on 3 computers; they ran/run happily after years of ops. A wipe and re-install is good, at the appropriate time. But to suggest however, especially to someone non-technical, "oh, just reinstall Windows" in the event of an issue is just plain masochistic.