Windows 7: win7 faults?

Hi
new to forum and if I had any hair I would be considered a very silver surfer so treat me gently!
Upgraded my system which was running xp pro to a quadcore system and installed windows 7 ultimate 64bit so as to recognise the 4gb Ram.
Had immense problems with system hanging/running slow and many many occurences of "program not responding" in progs like photoshop cs/ie8/thunderbird etc, usually finishing up with the system hung and only a forced reboot ending my plight!
Checked memory using memchecker and hardrives using seatools iso running for hours and all ok.
Referred back to PC supplier and after many checks by them they could not sort out so we put in an upgraded mobo which was Windows 7 compliant and same probs occurred. sent back one of my harddrives back to seagate for exchange (even though it checked out ok)
I formatted and installed Windows 7 as 32bit in case there was compatiblility issues and same same!
Whilst I can understand photoshop cs causing some problems I cannot understand why issues should arise with ie8 (and now ie9beta) in some cases when selected from a link within thunderbird it opens up to 9 copies of ie.
Since I cannot find any fault with the system...is there inherent faults within windows 7 that can cause these problems?

just wondering
have you tried updating your bios??

I have updated the bios/drivers and virtually everything else! have changed mouse/keyboard, hammered the pcu in a prolonged test and everything checked out ok!
Reloaded a prog called photovidshow (latest version) which I have used many times before and when trying to burn to dvd got the error message "attempted to read or write protected memory, this is often an indication that other memory is corrupt",
rechecked ram and again ok! many times I get the Greyed out window with not responding and after a few secs it works ok, I get the impression that I am working the system too fast and it is trying to catch up (but obviously this is rediculous)
I have just received my returned seagate 500gb drive and am considering reloading xp pro as a dual boot to compare ,

What software have you installed on this machine?

And for the record there is nothing ihereitly wrong with Windows 7 to cause this.
Otherwise we all would be facing it.

I have Windows 7 32bit,Microsoft essential security,ie9beta previously ie8, Advanced systemcare3,thunderbird/firefox,Nero10,Photoshop cs,Photovidshow,openoffice,IObit security 360,skype, Hewlett Packard printer prog/drivers, plus a few misc progrs loaded after probs.
The registry is cleaned every day and system checked by systemcare, and virus free, regular defrags, drivers are all up to date.
could it be a cacheing problem?
I dont do gameing (at 66 I'm too old) but do a lot of photo manipulation/saving using Photoshop (albiet an old version) and internet usage (geniology + angling forums) and its very frustrating to get half way through a task and having the PC hang or demand a shutdown loosing the work in progress, or find I have to close down half a dozen copies of ie to get to the one actually loading.
With xp pro, I used the same programs with no problems except the 3gb ram recognition not 4.
thanks for your tolerence guys

Registry cleaning....That could be a contributing factor. There is no reason nor should you have anything mess with the Registry, least of all if you don't know what is being messed with.

A few questions:

1. What exactly is the purpose of Advanced systemcare3?
2. Why are you using IObit security 360 when you also have Microsoft Security Essentials?
3. Why are you cleaning the registry? Windows 7 does not require as much tweaking (if any) as did Windows XP? EDIT: As LogicEarth said, this could be a contributing factor towards your problems)

You also don't need to defrag as often, as this is performed automatically by Windows.

When you say your drivers are up to date, is that staement based on information from third party programs (like Advanced systemcare3), or on fact? In other words, did you manually and purposely go to your computer manufacturer website (Dell, HP, etc), or to the websites for individual components (Asus, Gigabyte, ATI, nVidia, etc) and download the required updates yourself? The only people that can provide updated drivers are the manunfacturers - and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Wow
I was under the impression that the registry was the most likely part of windows that could "clog up" and it was necessary to clean/defrag to keep the system going smoothly so I paid for a copy of systemcare3 pro to do this for me, is this incorrect??? ibit came as an self loading addon to this program which is basically a registry fixer/defragger plus others such as privacy sweep/windows optimizer.
Drivers were all obtained from the manufacturers of the various components and installed by myself.
It would appear then, that I am an over enthusiastic dipstick in trying too hard in keeping my pc running!
As previously mentioned, I have just received the replacement hardrive (500gb) from seagate and have a 1.5tb seagate installed which I am working with now. Should I put in the 500 and install Windows 7 32 bit or 64bit as a clean install and leave off the systemcare and see how it goes? disconnecting the 1.5 temporarily or should I put it in and try for a dual boot system?
again, very grateful for your input