Good tips. I had to remove my fans recently and give everything a good cleaning. I have a PC and it really isn't hard at all. My machine is very outdated and has no temp monitoring program. There is a good program for monitoring temps here: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php and it's free
If you DL this don't freak if you see the flame icon briefly now and then. And if you have SMART don't change any settings unless you really know what you're doing.
What the OP said about DLing programs can't be stressed enough, Choose custom or advance install if given a choice. Be wary of any progs from CNet. Any progs from P2P should always be scanned before you open them. Scan with mbam and your a-v program.
One more tip... use noscript just to be on the safe side. http://noscript.net/
And this organization has some good progs:
http://www.googlesharing.net/products.php
google sharing prevents google from tracking your every move and do not track+ is good too. Also has a couple of other good privacy progs there if you shop online or use facebook.
And one more...web of trust, though they are still working bugs out there... some false reports and such. http://www.mywot.com/
If you use FF there are some good add-ons here http://nc.ddns.us/MyAddons/MyAddons.htm