[HawgRyder]

I know I should not gloat...but I use Linux...never have the blue or black screen of death.
The operating system determines the output of the computer...so if the system requires a lot of looks back to the HD, any interuption of that flow can cause a hickup.
Also...MicroSoft requires a lot of files to be loaded on startup...and sometimes when you want to start an app...it has to cache out a bunch of pre-loaded files in order to have enough room to load the new app.
My wife runs MS...and her startup time is a real eye opener...she has 16G of memory...and MS loads every bit of it with files it thinks it might need at that time.
Her time from power on to run is sometimes several minutes.
My startup is about 15 seconds.
Linux does not fill up the memory...and therefore is always ready to run a new app.
For your problem...you should be "cleaning" the HD on a regular basis...this involves getting rid of old cache memories stored....and compacting the HD to save space.
Bob