Sorcha -

I don't have anything on the stuff you named, but currently it's almost necessary to have AntiVirus for the viral stuff, AntiPopup for the nuisance stuff, AntiAdware for all the tracking cookies, AntiSpyware for the invasive spyware, and AntiHijack for the stuff that it sounds like is your problem.

The "first line of defense" is a good AntiVirus, and a good firewall if possible. I use Norton for both, but there are lots of other good ones.

The googol toolbar does a fair job on popups if you get the latest version and turn on the popup blockup. Popups are NOT VIRAL and your AV can't do anything about them, althoug some AV programs have started incorporation anitpopup as an auxiliary function.

Ad-Aware and Spybot are pretty good for eliminating Adware, some of which does some pretty invasive tracking of where you go. Since "visiting a site" is an "implied permission" for them to put a cookie on your machine, and the cookie can contain info on where you've been, an AV program can't do much about these.

The latest nuisance is widespread "hijack" junk, that installs a new web home page and/or replaces your search engine with one that gives you their own ads. True spyware, like keystroke loggers etc., is often "piggybacked" on some of this. The same "implied permission" lie is used to trick you and your AV/firewall/popup blocker into installing it. Sometimes you get it just by visiting a site, but usually you have to "click something" so that they can lie and say you gave permission. In the nastiest versions, clicking the "X" to close a popup actually installs the shit, but this is fairly rare. Several people here have mentioned good success with a program that I believe is called "Hijack This" or something similar for this kind of junk. Maybe someone will give us a link.

You do need to recognize that "virus," "popup," "adware," "spyware," and "hijack" malware are each distinct kinds of crap, and each takes slightly different treatment, and often distincly different programs, to remove effectively. The better AV sites will often have info on most of these kinds of junk, and will sometimes have instructions for removing stuff that isn't really "viral," but recognizing the different types is almost a necessity in order to do any systematic cleanup.

Sorry I can't offer any specific help for the crud you've got; but perhaps you can do a little more effective searching if you know that there's often more than just "viri" involved.

John