Safe mode?

When you turn on your laptop hit like.. F1 or something.. should bring up some boot options. It's F-something.

There should be a safe mode option somewhere.

Mine is F8 or F10. I think 10. If you see anything asking about setup, or menu, anything, just tap the button a lot. You'll eventually find the right one. It'll bring up a dos-esque screen, asking if you want to boot in safemode, safemode w/ network compatability, etc. Just take plain old safe. It'll boot up in what looks like a shitty version of Win ME, or Win 95. With graphics suited only to Win 3.1.

On mine it's F8. Just tap it once or twice on each screen when the laptop's loading, and eventually you'll get to a screen that'll ask how you want to load the computer. Choose Safe Mode.

Hold it while you boot, till the menu comes up, so you dont miss it.

I *always* miss it.

If software packages don't help, just do it manually.

Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up task manager, click on the "Processes" tab, then search them, one by one, until you claw your eyes out, right here.

Some of the more sophisticated brands of spyware consist of three files that reload each other. I won't go into the fine details, but if you remove a process that comes up as malicious, and it just keeps popping back up, just accept the fact that you need to have it professionally cleaned.

Look into eTrust antivirus and ZoneAlarm for continued security. eTrust is free and can be found in the XP list of suggested antivirus programs. It also comes with a 12-month free trial. ZoneAlarm actually has a craptastic spyware detection feature, but its real advantage comes in the way that it monitors every little thing that happens on your computer. This baby will block zMUD until you tell the program that it's safe. It will block IE. It will block Windows Update. It doesn't care who claims to have made the software. Everything gets blocked. New program sneaks on and tries to access the internet? Tries to modify your registry outside of an Install Shield? Just click the handy-dandy "Deny" button, and life goes on!

That's the only thing that sucks - if it gets into the registry and you have to manually clean it. Luckily you might be able to avoid paying someone some silly price if you can google the issue (Provided it isn't eating away at your system at the moment) and following some long string of instructions listed on some forum page.

Still, ad-aware should do it for you. You might have to manually uninstall programs if they're that into your PC and and even beyond that you'll have to dig into the registry without screwing anything up. It sounds like a lot, but.. eh.. better than Ebates or something filling your favorites folder, making its own toolbar, and etc.

Other than that I agree with Xavius. With a good program you should be able to keep your PC clean if you don't want to do the other things. You still might occasionally get useless malware or trackers through cookies, but meh. Just can't help those anymore. I'd still pirate it though, but that's my solution for everything.