I got overrun last month and spent a month cleaning up. The folks at spywareinfo.com (forum) were extremely helpful. They have numerous programs to diagnose where the bad stuff is. And yes, it was deep in the system, Adaware and SpyBot can't delete it. I had to delete over 100 .dll files.

I suspect I got overwhelmed in December when I clicked on a cutesy Christmas card that probably had activeX stuff. Once one creep got in, I think it stood at the hole and waved to all the other creeps, "Come on in guys!"

That obnoxious Bargain Buddy is what started me seriously cleaning up. That and the fact that surfing was so slow; I was almost imobilized. (I thought I had Cook Web Search, thus tried CWShredder, but that wasn't the problem. These creeps disguise themselves as all kinds of things. They are also aggresively sabotaging the sites which help fight them. I was hijacked unmercifully.)

I learned that the malware creeps got more aggressive in November. Also, the large virus protection programs don't strive to get rid of adware.

I now have Firefox - love it. (plus Adaware, Spybot, a good virus checker, and a firewall...will get two more and Eudora when I have time to.)