I always found Spybot and Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware to be wonderful programs. I guess it depends on what kind of crazy virus your infected with. I have a Dell, no longer under warranty(I just did not find it worth it to spend 250 bucks for 4 years just to get some guy on the phone who had no clue what he was doing). I’ve had many scares with my computer but always found those spyware programs to be very beneficial. I use FireFox and those pesky viruses still find a way to get through, even without you realizing it til its too late. WOW 15,000 viruses..never heard of that many on one machine. That’s incredible..a few is horrible, can’t imagine 15,000, glad you got everything cleared up. Yes always always always back up your drive with everything that is important to you, because once its gone its gone.
I didn’t say the free programs were bad — just that some of them conflict with each other and sometimes you can’t remove the conflicting program. I say try Spybot, or another anti malware program, all alone. Don’t layer several programs. That’s how I got in trouble. If it doesn’t zap your virus right away, then consult a professional, after you are sure that all your files are backed up.
BTW, that computer that had been infected with 15,000 viruses is still operating after I got it cleaned up, although it is pretty old. It has been upgraded to the max (XP — started out as Win98).