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Let me second grey_moon's suggestion about running as a user with limited rights.
By default, users on Windows versions though XP are automatically granted administrator rights when created. This is an enormous violation of good security policies that reflects Windows roots in single-user DOS systems and a general Microsoft preference for convenience over security.
Go to Control Panel > User Accounts (I think that's what it's called) and turn off administrative rights for any accounts other than the Administrator account (and give that account a password if others besides you might be using the computer). This simple step prohibits malware from writing to system areas on your drive.
You may find that a few badly-written programs won't run without admin rights. You can use the Run As feature to run these programs as Administrator if you need them. You'll also need to run as Admin to install software. Most of the time you shouldn't notice any difference in your Windows experience running as an ordinary user.
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