Ditto! For some reason I used to think the more tray icons the better.

But not as bad as when I tried to delete C:\Windows before it would try to stop you. (For science, of course.)

When I was a youngin', I used to create meaningless shortcuts all over the desktop using those PIFMGR icons (https://i.stack.imgur.com/I1YqC.jpg).

I think kids and adults aren't so different; we all just really want to collect and stare at colorful juicy berries—er, "apps"—on our screens (re: the research that turning them greyscale makes us look at them less.) Adults just have a greater need for rationalization toward practicality on top of an entirely aesthetic desire, and thus download apps with nice icons (or toolbars containing nice icons) that seem like they'd do something useful... and then just never use them.

Oh my, I completely forgot about this. I would change all the icons for the shortcuts on my desktop to "better" ones from this list too. Good times.

On my first PC, when I was 10, had a Norton Commander that gave me way too much power.

I found C:\ to be a mess, so I moved all files into a System folder.

I used the PC once a week or so, so when I started it again a week later I had no memory of what I did and it just wouldn't boot anymore.

Same! I’m pretty sure my parents just accepted that the BonziBuddy website would be the homepage on the family computer whether we liked it or not.

In hindsight I wonder what other, less obvious, malware I installed as a clueless kid with free reign internet access.

I had BonziBuddy, CometCursor, a toolbar for something called "Slotch.com", and RealPlayer (after they updated it to try and take over your computer) installed on my personal laptop as a kid, and always wondered why other people's computers went so slow when my computer had a newer CPU.

God,

Cometcursor being so horrible inspired me to learn how to make .ico files with transparency in mspaint.... good times!