<font color=fffccc>Good news indeed.
Free only: AVG is good.
Does your ISP have a software downlaod link. Some ISPs offer free use AV and such.
Do you have a firewall? Free = zone labs zone alarm.
My spousal unit has M$ AntiSpyWare on her rig. Free from none other the M$. Doesn't seem to annoying.
There is another, but the free version is not that stout, and the corportae version is a bit much for my liking. Spyware Doctor.

Good Luck, and glad to see you up and running. </font>

Thanks Felix.

I'm now running with Avast, AVG, and AdAware (amazingly, just going from msn.com by default with IE and to IW's, I caught 3 spyware types (27 total instances). I'm going with FireFox.

My ISP btw is now the university, with its own annoying firewall (won't let me play Call of Duty), but I'll look into Zone Alarm and a secondary spyware program.

Before I was running with only AVG and AdAware - perhaps I had it coming? lol. Two anti-virus and two anti-spyware should do the trick. I hope.

One antivirus program should do the job, there is a reason why avast and avg are free. Splash out that £20 on a decent antivirus. I've been using McAfee with ZoneAlarm for years now and havn't had any viruses to speak of.

I can appreciate the value of software that you pay to update you and all, but I've had system-ending viruses with both Norton and McAfee. In the tests I've read Norton, McAfee, and AVG score similarly. In one IW's own Bozos of Bones did, Avast outscored them all. I'm happier with more than one, and even happier to not pay for them ;)

ZoneAlarm must be good though...