Try these sites for free malware protection.....
www.grisoft.com for their Free AVG virus protection
www.corestreet.com/spoofstick - didplays the real address of the web site you are looking at so you can spot a fraudulent site.
www.ewido.net/en/features - for a free spyware remover
www.microsoft.com - search for their free antispyware beta program
www.lavasoftusa.com for Ad-Aware syware removal
Have a look at A-squared for another free virus checker
Go to this site to switch off open doors to your machine left by windows!
http://grc.com/dcom/
and last but not least...
www.misec.net/trojanhunter to get rid of trojans
THe last one is very important - a friend with a laptop on Broadband picked up a Sasser trojan despite Windows firewall and Norton anti virus. "sasser.exe object not found _ok?" click ok and get a reboot to the same message. Not funny.
Also a friend advised me to get a wireless router with built in firewall as extra protection. Worth every penny.
The trick is to have multiple checking programs and firewalls - it makes it harder for the a**holes and you might just stay clean.
So far so good.
Oh - and auto update the firewall, Windows and Virus checkers every day - most can be set to do this automatically.
If you have Broadband/DSL disconnect it when its not in use! Dont allow your machine to be used as a trojan or virus distribution centre!
Its a cruel world out there and getting more viscious every day.