Excellent. Here is some info that I provide to users that have clean computers.

Software recommendations

Antivirus/Antispyware

• Microsoft Security Essentials: this is Microsoft's free antivirus/antispyware program. It equips you with protection against viruses, spyware, trojans, rootkits, and worms. It is also light on the computer's performance. Note: when installing this, you have both an antivirus and antispyware. Make sure you also get a firewall.
  
• Avira Free: this is one of the most powerful, and easiest to use security software. The free version equips you with protection against viruses, spyware, trojans, rootkits, worms, and rogue software.

Firewall

• Tallemu Online Armor: the free version is just as good as the premium. I have linked you to the free version.
  
• Comodo Firewall: the free version is just as good as the premium. I have linked you to the free version. The optional security suite enhances the firewall by 40% increase. If you would like to install the suite that includes antivirus, then remove your old antivirus first.
  
• PC Tools Firewall Plus: free and excellent firewall.

Securing your computer

• Windows Updates - It is very important to make sure that both Internet Explorer and Windows are kept current with the latest critical security patches from Microsoft. To do this just start Internet Explorer and select Tools > Windows Update, and follow the online instructions from there.
  
• hpHosts file replaces your current HOSTS file with one containing well known ad sites and other bad sites. This prevents your computer from connecting to those sites by redirecting them to 127.0.0.1, which is your local computer's loopback address, meaning it will be difficult to infect your computer in the future.
  

Please consider using an alternate browser
Mozilla's Firefox browser is a very good alternative. In addition to being generally more secure than Internet Explorer, it has a very good built-in popup blocker and add-ons, like NoScript, can make it even more secure. Opera is another good option.

If you are interested:

• Firefox may be downloaded from here: http://www.getfirefox.com
  
• Opera is available here: http://www.opera.com/download/
  

See this page for more info about malware and prevention.

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thank you so much. this has been a big help!