cleaning malware & viruses off a computer with no AV package

have a Antivirus+antispiware[+firewall] cd ready.

first, I suggest, you have a copy of at least Clam Antivirus handy (Windows, Mac, Linux). Please note that this particular AV package does not have shields/a real-time virus scanner. But it does clean the machine. Also with this package, you must configure it to schedule scans on your hard disk(s), and also update fully automatically at logon, and move infected files to quarantine folder.

OR, run MRT.exe

peridocally, Microsoft Automatic Updates sends the Malicious Software Removal Tool down the wire. it is about 26MB in size, and you must run it manually to scan your computer to remove malware/viruses/worms, if any. It might not be a complete tool, but it cleans out the big ones.

scan your machine with the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. Start|Run mrt [Enter] OR [windows-logo-key]+R mrt [Enter]

Commercial (pay-for) AV packages

Microsoft OneCare, available from $

The best I have found so far

Norton Internet Security, available from $

consumes the machine at logon, internet too

Mcafee Internet Security, available from $

when an update is occurring, the entire machine slows to a crawl. you can tell it is doing this by the little system tray icon red arrow that turns in a circle.

Kaspersky Internet Security, available from $

There used to be a problem with this product (6.0?) where it would limit a folder to 16384 files. for people who do logging & security, this is critical.