Massive issues with RTM x64

Having installed the x64 RTM build of Windows 7 I am experiencing fairly severe crashing and frequent errors.

Firstly, my specs are as follows:

Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 motherboard
Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz processor
3GB DDR2 memory
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO graphics
Creative XiFi Xtreme Music PCI soundcard
300GB RAID 0 HD

I verified the ISO with HashTab and fully scanned the install files with MSE.

Everything was going fine, installed the 9.7 Catalyst suite, most recent XiFi drivers, MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) etc. All basic stuff and all x64 versions.

I then proceeded to install SpywareBlaster from javacoolsoftware as I have done since build 7000. Next thing I knew my CPU usage went up to 100% and when I clicked on the Start Menu Windows Explorer would crash everytime.

After a reboot I noticed that my CPU usage would be fine until I right-clicked on SpywareBlaster in the Start Menu and selected Run as Admin. As soon as I did that then I'd get the 100% CPU usage and Windows Explorer would crash. I submitted the error reports to DONOTHINGSOFT and uninstalled SpywareBlaster, having restarted everything was fine.

Now as I usually rely on Avast/MSE + Spybot S & D + SpywareBlaster I figured I'd try a different program, so I went ahead and installed the latest Ad-Aware official beta.

Again everything seemed fine until I started getting frequent Access Violation messages and the Windows Explorer crashing resurfaced.
I uninstalled Ad-Aware but this time the problem has persisted.
Oddly enough the Guest account my family use appears to remain unaffected.

It's all quite odd, I have used the same combination, tried and tested, since pre build 7000 without issue.

So as to what is going on I am at a complete loss.

Therefore my question/s are:

Has anybody else seen anything like this and/or use/d a similar combination?

Is it possible MS changed something in the RTM and it's just a case of playing catch-up for SpywareBlaster and Ad-Aware?

Can anyone recommend another security program/combination that works well with MSE (I am on the official beta and like the program so will continue to use it) and Spybot S & D, or do we all feel that is sufficient?

I would have reinstalled, but I am fairly tempted now to wait until I can get the official Technet release on the 6th and spend the remaining time trying to resolve the issue and experiment with software.

While this doesn't explain what is wrong and its a stop gap. Since you said guest wan't affected coldn't you create another user and see if they are affected?

Ken

Thanks Ken,

Yes, I'll give that a try in the morning as I have given up and opted for Fedora on my laptop.

Still, I'd really like to get to the root of it as I suffer from pretty extreme OCD.
As soon as something goes wrong with an install I like to verify the cause then reinstall avoiding that problem.

Otherwise I get consumed by it, and end up depressed.

I have tried creating both a new Standard user and an Administrator account and I can confirm that the issues still exist.

As to why the Guest account is unaffected is a complete mystery to me.

I'm reluctant to do yet another clean install at this point with the 6th looming, and the fact my family moan about stuff not being installed.