Spyware of Death?
Since using AdAware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and AVG anti-virus (all free versions, though I'm going to donate some money to these lifesaving folks and/or upgrade when I get some more cash in my life), I've had little or no trouble with spyware, adware, and/or viruses.
I've also added WinPatrol (also free) which is another great utility for watchdogging registry changes and has a resident icon in the system tray for easy access to lists of services, startup processes, cookies, etc.
I also installed Spyware Blaster (another free basic edition) on advice from one of apotheon's posts and it's been working so well that AdAware hasn't found anything in it's last 8 scans.
