This newsletter is about my approach to removing spyware programs.  I owe credit for my success in solving this particular problem to the few programmers who take on the sometimes thankless job of hacking the hackers.  If it were not for the creators of programs like Ad Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, Hijack This, Peter Norton (Symantec), and many others, we would be defenseless against the onslaught of parasites attacking our computers, our privacy, and our property. 
Now without any further delay, here are the most common steps I take.

Assuming the PC will boot into windows at all:

Boot the machine into Safe Mode
Run Norton Anti-Virus (full Scan)
Run Spybot S&D 1.3 (repair everything it finds)
Run AdAware 6.0 (repair everything it finds)
Run HijackThis (remove suspicious entries); (Use only if you are an expert user)
Run Msconfig (clear everything from the startup tab)
Go into control panel and select the Add Remove Programs Icon.

Look for programs in the list with obviously suspicious names that you didn't install, for example: MySearch, CouponsPlus, CoolSearch, Look2Me, CoolWeb Search, IEHelper, VirtualBouncer, etc..  Uninstall any suspicious programs.

Never uninstall any windows update or patch.

Reboot the computer and see how you did.  Problem all gone?  Then we were very lucky.  Still have issues.  Then you need to dig deeper.  Most of the time, the mentioned above will find and remove parasites from a system; however, aside from your Anti-Virus program, they are not designed to locate a Virus.  It could be that your Anti-Virus signature files are too old, or that a virus has effectively disabled it.

This should give you a good start at solving the problem without paying for professional help.  Anything beyond this point requires an expert technician.

To learn more about the tools mentioned in this article, click this link.