darth_ender said:

For my own whine session, I caught the most awful computer virus. I've handled viruses before (not that I'm all that savvy, but I've found the right tools to take care of it). This one was really a doozie, though. It started as just a supposed FBI warning that turned on my camera and stated I had done some illegal activities and needed to pay a fine. I had to do a hard shut down and start in safe mode. The program disabled any kind of security software I had and wouldn't allow me to use it or even update it. After various tricks, it seemed like I'd gotten it all, but still my security programs were not usable, though online scanners were finding nothing. Finally I found a site that recommended a rootkit removal tool from Kaspersky, and that seemed to do the trick. Everything was freed up and several new viruses were discovered. Oh my gosh, this has been a nightmare to clean up! And I wasn't even going to sites that I would consider dangerous or harboring viruses! I think the nightmare's over though, thank heavens!

Easiest way to solve any virus issue is to have a complete disk image backup of your computer. Setup your computer exactly how you want it and create the back up...then once you have a virus or a software issue you can just completely restore your hard disk to how it was originally (Note: this is NOT like System Restore on Windows). I use Acronis True Image.

I do this all the time when I have huge projects that result in tons of extra files and programs scattered on my desktop. Then I just save the files I want to an external hard drive and restore to the original state.

Bingo has a point as well. Ubuntu is pretty easy to use if you are a long time windows user and has less issues (plus it's free and open source).