ok im sorry but i have to butt in here...  1. there is no such thing as a safe windows solely because new exploits come out every day not counting the underground exploits.  2. windows defender is trash... try ad-aware personal editon and spywareblaster for adaware and spyware  3. dont forgot a firewall... some free good ones are zonealarm free, avast, and outpost  4. you are right on updating windows for the latest patches   5. always have a antivirus with real time scanner such as AVG and ANTIVIR  6. no matter how much u love IE (internet explorer) it needs to go make a smart switch to firefox you can add plugins that block popups, scripts, java, directx, ads, pretty much 100% configurable  7. and if u are a total paranoid and want to be invisible online try a proxie tool such as JAP and TOR  if you have any questions send me a message