Well, I’ve successfully been running my computer without a virus scanner or a software firewall for over 6 years now without getting a virus or spyware infection. But I recently had to fix a friend’s computer and found a few good tools for this purpose.
Spybot Search & Destroy (Donateware) — An essential cornerstone of Ad/Malware-Removing software. Run this first, and make a backup of your Registry before doing anything incase you need to restore.
Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware (Shareware) — Another great malware removing utility.
Both SpybotS&D and Ad-Aware should be run on your system because they each have different detections. Additionally, make sure you check for updates regularly. There’s no need to be paranoid about checking your system all the time, but if you start to notice unexpected behavior like browser windows popping up or your computer or internet is slowing down, that’s usually a good indicator that you need to disinfect.
Webroot’s Spy Sweeper (Shareware) — Another great product. Infact, one of the most comprehensive utilities available for cleaning up bad crap on your computer. I have friends that swear by this program.
Hijack This (Freeware) — When malware has its dirty hooks deep in your system, this is a great program to remove things at a low-level. Do NOT go deleting everything that the scan comes up with. Many of the things that it detects are infact good items essential to your system’s operation. If you have any questions about the scan results, please post them here or email me.
These should be the only programs you need. If you find another piece of software that claims to remove ads, please let me know about it first before you try it, since there are many programs masquerading around like this, but in reality, they are malware themselves.
Additionally, if you need some great, free Anti-Virus software, check out AVG AntiVirus.