Yes, Microsoft has good products.

I find it quite interesting how many normally fair people unfairly judge its products. I have heard "MicroPuke" many times from people who nevertheless, continue to run Windows. And I find it interesting how, despite its good products and its product placement advantages, Microsoft insists on following unfair trading practices. There are many otherwise smart people out there who hate Microsoft. And Microsoft is just a software firm; America is much more influential and consequently liable to be hated much more viciously. I think...I'm not sure.

(As for reinstalling Windows, if you don't have a backup program for your computer system, no matter what operating system you're using, you're asking for trouble; all hard-drives die. Acronis makes the best for Windows. Not including a good backup system with Windows is one of the many ways Microsoft needlessly shoots itself in the foot.)

Also: it ain't hard to turn off the paperclip.
Get MyIE2 as a (free) shell for Internet Explorer.