I sympathize. I got hit with the “Your PC Protector” virus. It starts out as random popups saying “You’re system is infected”, “You’re system is under attack”, etc. They get more and more frequent. What they’re trying to do is sell you a malware protection thingy - after they’ve screwed up your computer. And they also get your credit card information.
If you start getting the popups, stop and immediately get the best malware scrubber you can find.
I had that and finally found the way to get rid of it from one of the geek sites. It had something to do with Yahoo’s toolbar if I recall correctly.
Anyway, for those of you who need free stuff to protect your computers here is CNET’s site
http://download.cnet.com/windows/?tag=hdr;snav