Anti-Virus Protection

A good anti-virus program is essential when you are using the Windows operating system on your computer.  A very good suite of programs (one of which includes a personal firewall) are the AVG Anti-Virus products from Grisoft.  I find AVG to be lightweight (that is, it does not bog-down your computer) and relatively inexpensive.  Their licenses are for two years, eliminating the annual hassle of renewing.  They also have a free version for home users (no cheating, these guys make a good product and deserve to be paid).  Their web site is:

I am recommending two products in this category, and you should use both.  Why use two spyware scanners?  Because there is no legal definition of what spyware is or is not, and the companies that make these programs do not cooperate with each other to discover new threats.  Therefore, using two programs gives you a better chance of catching most of the nasties out there.

Microsoft Windows Defender Beta 2
This is a really comprehensive program that can be set to automatically scan your system for spyware, update itself, and catch new spyware when it tries to install itself.  It it free, but there is a catch.  You have to go through a process of validating your copy of Windows.  If you are honest (and I'm sure you are), this is not a problem.  
Please note that if you ae using the previous version of this product (Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta1) you will not be automatically notified of an update.  You will need to download the installer at the link given here.
The download is available here.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE
This is another free program, but requires the user to manually scan and update (unless you pay for one of the premium versions).  Since this program requires you to do the work (once a week or so), you need to be diligent and actually do it. The download is available here.

Windows XP PowerToys

PowerToys are little tweaks you can install that adds functionality to Windows. For example, if you have to resize photos for a web site or a brochure, there is a Toy called Image Resizer to make this task much easier. If you have several programs running at the same time and are always searching to find the window you want, then Virtual Desktop Manager lets you have four virtual desktops with different windows open.  PowerToys are free and can be found here.