I installed XP Pro and before I updated to the latest security fixes I got virus' and spyware on my system.  Very annoying.  Other than using trend Micro's online virus scanner these 3 programs were great help:

1. Ad-aware
www.lavasoftusa.com
2. Spybot Search and Destroy
www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download
3. CWShredder
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads31.html

Download them (they are all free!!), update them immediately and then run them. Whatever they find can be deleted.


I highly recommend them

Yeah, AD-Aware is sweet. I swear by it to keep my computer from being inundated with ad-garbage.

yeah, those are all good programs, especially ad-aware, but there's some stuff that even ad-aware won't catch. for that i use a program called hijack-this. the company that made it isn't even around anymore, but it's a great program. it shows you all the modifications made to your os, then let's you undo any of them. you need to be careful though since you can mess stuff up if you don't know what you're doing.

you can download it from my site, but please save a copy since i'll be taking it down in about a week.

http://www.korossy.org/stuff/HijackThis.exe

   
They're all great and have helped me on my job, but your best protection is NOT using AOL/ AIM, enabling your XP firewall (by default disabled)., and having CURRENT virus protection software.
All IM's open up your firewall and that can cause problems. They're getting better but i won't use one.

Good stuff, that CWShredder and Hijack this sound like what I need.  My mother has a browser hijack on her PC and I was just about to wipe it out... thanks guys!