I've been plagued with minor yet annoying problems with my 3-year old Win2K install, I've posted previously that I was debating moving to XP but have decided to stick with 2K.

Problems I'm having are (but not limited to):
* Explorer locking up and needing to be killed via task manager (particularly when previewing thumbnails in my digital phot collection)
* IE locking up randomly
* Occassional inability to shut down
* Unable to install recovery console as a boot option
* Scheduled chkdsk for primary drive does not run at boot
* Office XP occassionally locks up or freezes temporarily

Due to the nature of the symptoms, I'm convinced the problem is with my actual OS (and the MS insistence on application/OS integration), and not a particular bad app, plus I'm not having any problems with non-MS apps. My system is still very usable, it's just a little frustrating with the problems. Over the last three years I've installed and uninstalled countless programs so I have no doubt there is a lot of grunge in my registry (although I've run three different cleaners) and orphaned dll files floating around.

(And I'm convinced the system is malware free, I'm running Spybot/AdAware/SpyBlaster, and sitting behind both a software and a hardware firewall, and I can account for everything in my HijackThis log)

So here's the thing, I know I should do a clean install, it's about due, but I started to dread the idea of re-installing all of my apps, I have a ton. Perhaps more importantly, I am very lazy, so I am trying to avoid having to go that route.

What exactly happens with a repair, I've never done one so I'm not entirely clear? Will my registry get wiped? Will my system files revert back to original, or will they use any cached latest-SP files on my hard drive? (I did re-install SP4 and Windows Updates hoping that might help fix whatever was wrong, but no dice). Basically, am I going to have to wind up re-installing everything? If so, I may as well do the clean install and be done with it.

Anyways, sorry for the rambler, as always any advice or comments appreciated...

Cheers,
KV