NEW BUILD: What is chief cause of Win7/8 instability?

Hi there,

About to make my own workstation for print and web work, wanted to know what I should be on the look out for in regards to instability issues on Windows 7 and 8/8.1.

At work, we're on i5 Gateways (stop laughing) and they run like champs -- but we've disabled EVERY SINGLE updating feature on them. Once we [DEL]gutted all the Gateway crapware[/DEL] made some adjustments, the cord was cut, so to speak.

I've considered just buying myself the same Gateway and be done with it -- but I'd like to know what are the biggest culprits of instability issues in the latest Windows OS?

Besides hardware ? drivers of course. Using some "miracle" speedup and customizing tools, ranks pretty high in my books. Skipping updates or updating highly modified windows can make a mess of it. Defender, as much as some like it is not a really very effective unless one is extremely careful and not visiting suspicious sites and using a lot of memory sticks you don't know where it's been. So, a good AV + something like Malwarebytes for occasional checks is practically a must if one is active on the net or has a lot of unknown files going thru the system.
All in all, a nicely set system without too much "shmucking around" should not have any problems at all. I have seen even lovely XP last many years without a hitch on computers used only for let's say accounting, CAD or other programs without owners modding or otherwise damaging OS itself.