There's a recent report out that Win7 may come with a disabling panel that lets you *turn off* applications you don't want so they don't waste RAM - like IE, Media Player, and a a dozen other applications. For gameplay, this would be nice for freeing up as much RAM as possible.
That's not a terrible idea (I like the thought), though it still leaves the DLLs sitting in the system folder quietly. If a mal-virus slips by and infects one its still a problem. I also don't know if a malware might be able to re-enable the applications.
There's a another piece of news that some DLLs are getting a "free pass" through the UAC which makes them likely targets of malware (like the RUNDLL32 critter).
Obviously, this may change a dozen more times before release 1.0 but it does show me they're at least discussing some of the things analysts are saying.
http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...5260KM20090307