Ad Aware,  C cleaner and  Avast, Fixed my problems . Got rid of a Trogan Horse Virus.Even cleaned the registry.

Ok,
First you'll want a couple good spyware tools,
I suggest, like others here have, Ad-Aware and SpyBot S&D
Which you can get here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ad-Aware_SE_Personal_d506.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/SpyBot-Search_&_Destroy_d2471.html

After you install and check for updates on both,
you will want to run themwhile booted into "Safe-Mode" to be most effective.
To boot into "safe-mode":
Restart your computer
before it does anything start tapping "F8"
this will bring you to "boot options" screen
on that screen choose "safe-mode" and hit "enter"
This will load only essential apps. This should keep most of any malware on your computer from running, running apps can't be deleted so easier to remove the malware when it hasn't loaded.
SpyBot S&D might offer to run at boot if it detects something that has loaded if it offers, let it.

Another thing you can do is use a customised HOSTS file. You can get that here:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.zip
Just unzip the file to:
(WindowsXP)C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
(Windows9x)C:\WINDOWS
(Windows2k)C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc
it will ask if you want to replace the file that is already there click "yes"

Then run SpyBot S&D again, under "Tools" select Hosts file, and click "Add Spybot-S&D hosts list"
after this has finished go back to where you unzipped the HOSTS file, right click on the hosts file, choose properties, and put a check in the "Read Only" check box, click OK.
This will block malware sites from your computer as their DNS lookup will resolve to "localhost" instead of the actual IP of the malware site, setting to "read only" will prevent malware from writing to the hosts file and blocking good sites from being resolved.
All you ever wanted to know about HOSTS files...and all you didn't want to know as well:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Now, once any malware has been removed from your computer you will want to be sure your registry is clean so if you are running WindowsXP a great free registry cleaner is RegScrbXP, you can get that here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Lexun_RegScrubXP_d2048.html
it will clean out all kinds of crap from your registry, not just malware stuff. This app will create backups of your registry so you can restore it if anything gets fsked up.

Now, if all this still doesn't fix your problems, there are a couple other things you can do, but they are generally for advanced users, as done wrong they can screw things up.
So if all this I've mentioned doesn't fix your problem...I suggest you email me.  

EDIT:  As per the above thread I should mention that when you boot into safe mode to do your cleaning log in to the "Admin" account.
Ok...that's all, just neglected to mention that.

-- Modified on 8/23/2005 4:35:06 PM

That would prevent 98% of a reoccurnace of spyware.  You were using IE right ?  

JPM

I am using, and highly recommend, CounterSpy from Sunbelt Software.  Installs easily, you get updates for a year, and it has a very high rate of detection.  No one package is perfect, but CounterSpy comes closest.

First let me say this is great information !!!

I have been told that if you have more than one anti-virus progran that they will most likely interfere with each other .
Is that true.

Opinions on the best anti- virus programs.

What is the scoop on anti-spy, if you have more than one will they interfere with each other???

any opinions on the free anti-virus and anti-spyware offered by AOL whit their 9.0 SE version???
I thhink the anti-virus is Mcafee, do not know about the anti-spyware.

Thank You