SpyWareBlaster and The Proxomitron is an unbeatable combo.
Whether you are savvy or not, you should be using The Proxomitron. It will work out of the box and protect against such things as popups and homepage hijackers. Run the install program, put a shortcut to it in your startup folder, and then set it as an http proxy on port 8080. To do this for IE go to tools, internet options, connections. Then click settings if you have a dialup connection or click lan settings if you have cable. Either way, the rest is the same. Check the box that says use a proxy server and then click advanced. Under proxy address by HTTP, type in "localhost". Under port, type in 8080. OK your way out and surf free of popups, ads, and other obnoxious stuff.
You will have an icon in your system tray. If you want to bypass the program and see the page as it would appear normally, right click the icon and select bypass all filters and refresh the page.
Another thing. If you maintain the browser proxy settings as mentioned above and the Proxomitron is not running, you will not be able to connect to the internet. You will either have to reverse the proxy settings in the browser settings or start the Proxomitron.
Finally, this program is a stand-alone meaning it adds nothing to the registry or do such things as install dll's in the windows directory. This means if you don't like it all you have to do is not use it and if you want to uninstall it, just delete its program folder.
It's available here:
http://www.proxomitron.info/files/index.shtml
"Filthy, nasty spywareses... trying to ruin the Precious. We won't lets that happen, no. We'll shows them good!"