Replies

Help for viruses and malware:

Ad-Aware ... Spybot ... Peper Uninstaller ... HijackThis... CWShredder ... Spyware Blaster ... IE Spyad ... Free online Virus scan ... AVG AntiVirus ... LSPfix ... How to Show Hidden Files ... How to boot into Safe Mode ... How did I get infected in the first place?

Things you need--(all FREE)
Anti-Virus
AVG Anti-Virus version 7 (free) release available...

Avast
Firewall
Kerio(Direct Download) Zone Alarm

If are using zone alarm it may slow your PC. Try Outpost Firewall http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost or Sygate Firewall http://www.sygate.com/, both have FREE and Pro versions and are heads above ZA.
Misc.
IE Spyads SpywareBlaster Spyware Guard
Windows Update- you must keep updated, it is the start of a secure system-
get all CRITICAL Updates

Things you want(Still Free)

I use Firefox PR1 and IMHO, beats the sox off MS Explorer. Life is good with tabs. Click the link and give it a try.

Ad-Aware
Spybot S&D

SpywareBlaster
MS MVP Hosts file

Mike Lin's Homepage and get the Startup Control Panel and Startup Monitor tools.

The best forum for malware removal:

http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?s=262d844129208feb8b0cf5b0186a32f6&act=SC&c=4
SWI Forums--

ZoneAware does make your computer boot up much slower. And there were problems after the release of WinXP-SP2 and with the early versions of ZoneAlarm 5. But the latest version of ZoneAlarm (5.5.062) has finally cut back on the bugs and the amount of memory used. It's a considerable improvement.