I use Norton AV, Zone alarm firewall, Ad-aware, Pestpatrol, Spybot & Winpatrol. I have not had any virus or malware problems since. Also, you should have a switch handy to turn off the internet instantly. If I see anything lke "Preparing to Install" or anything like that, I hit the button to shut off the cable modem. Then I shut down IE. After a while, I will go on again, but not to the website that I had the problem with.