Consider this an excellent time to recognize that your operating system is defective. I recommend replacing it with one of:
http://fedora.redhat.com
http://www.centos.org
http://www.opensuse.org
http://www.debian.org
http://www.ubuntu.org
http://www.slackware.org
http://www.freebsd.org
http://www.opensolaris.org
Any of these will be more reliable, less susceptible to viri, uses your hardware more efficiently, and they're all free.
Personally, if I had some money, I'd actually buy a Mac. The total cost of ownership is less than that of Windows, (initially it costs more, but reliability, security and viri issues inevitably make Windows cost more). The level of frustration is always lower than with Windows.
If you must run a windows app, then you install Fusion or any of the other PC emulators and run windows in a virtual machine. You ONLY run that ap on that virtual machine. You browse and do everything network related on the host Mac to keep secure and virus free.
Its true, I spend more time on Windows than Macs but that's simply because my job is to fix computer problems, and, frankly, that difference in cost of ownership PAYS MY SALARY. Perhaps I should be advertising Windows just to keep myself in business.
I suggest the various free-wares because, well, they're free and although they are harder to learn than the Mac, they certainly are more reliable than Windows.