In reply to:

After a year or two, or three, it's about time to reformat windows. It's just kinda the way it is.

Ummm... that's like taking a sledgehammer to a problem that can be fixed with a screwdriver. Although I suppose for the average user, it would be easier to reinstall than to do a good cleaning. Then again, there's all the files that might accidentally get lost during a reformat, and applications you lost the install media for, etc. etc.