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There's multiple classifications of infection in the computer world, just like there's multiple classifications of infections in the real world (for example viruses versus bacteria versus fungal infections). These infections work in different ways, and are often removed in different ways as well.

There's two main common categories for computer infections because of this. The first is "viruses", this generally includes viruses, worms, trojans, and malicious modifications to core system files. The second is "malware", which generally includes spware, adware, rogue software, and malicious system settings changes.

Often a scanner for one category won't aim for the other category due to the major differences, so it's recommended to have two programs. One antivirus and one antimalware, unless you have an antivirus that specifically includes antimalware instead (such as one of the paid anti-virus programs.)

It's important to only keep one anti-virus program installed at a time. Antivirus programs aren't normal programs, they hook into core parts of the system (such as filesystem I/O) and expect to be the only things doing so. Having multi antivirus programs can actually cause them to perform worse, or actually damage your system under rare circumstances.

• Anti-virus
  
  • Free
    Avast! - Has a boot-time scanner which can be really helpful to remove infections.
    Microsoft Security essentials - Good at staying out of your way unless there's an issue. Updates definitions along with Windows Update, is light on requirements.
    Comodo - Includes a software firewall and other such additional protections, but may be too restrictive for power users.
    Avira - Standard antivirus, but the free version displays an ad when it updates.
    AVG - Light on requirements, but can be seen as a little behind the times.
    
    
  • Paid
    Kaspersky - Big focus on Heuristics, so it can often catch infections before other AV programs can.
    NOD32 - Low amount of false positives.
    Bitdefender - Big focus on phishing protection, includes various other things such as parental controls (but the controls are easily bypassed).
    F-Secure - Very fast and lightweight, but weak anti-malware protection.
    Trend Micro - Website blocker, modern firewall, and a spam filter. Not the best malware protection.
  
  
  
• Anti-Malware
  
  • Free
    MalwareBytes - Excellent, takes steps that other programs don't in order to remove stubborn infections.
    SUPERAntiSpyware - Light on resources when scanning.
    Spybot S&D - And old standby, but can be considered deprecated. The TeaTimer component should not be installed or used.

• Q - A lot of the steps in the Removal Guide useless, do I still need to do it all?
  A - Every step has a purpose. Far too often people will skip steps, only to find they are still infected later. By the very nature of many infections, it's best that they remain hidden. After all, if you KNOW there's an infection you're going to try to remove it, right? Most actual viruses and bad infections will do all they can to prevent you from finding them, because they don't want you to try to remove them. Some steps you're told to follow may seem excessive, but they will catch stuff a simple virus scan won't.
  
  
  
• Q - Why not just format when you get infected?
  A - At least once a month, windows receives automatic security updates. These fix security holes that viruses and other types of infections can use to get into your computer and mess it up. When you format and reinstall windows, you are taking it back to a time before all the updates, meaning you are just opening the door for even more infections to get in! Most of the time it's better to remove the current infection and then take steps (listed in the "future prevention" post) to prevent reinfection. Formatting is a last resort, some people may have 50 gigabytes of personal files on their computer, and some people have their computers set up a very specific way that would take hours or days to restore to working order after a format. Just because formatting is your choice does not mean it should be the first suggestion to somebody else.
  
  
  
• Q - Why doesn't the Removal Guide specifically list (name of infection here)?
  A - There's thousands and thousands of computer infections, but most infections can be categorized into groups based on how they work, so a few tools and instructions can remove most of the computer infections people get. Furthermore the same infection can often call itself multiple names in order to try to disguise itself. This is most often true of infections that pretend to be virus scanners and try to scare you into "buying" them.
  
  
  
• Q - I found this (verified legit) program that I installed and it scanned my computer and says it found the problem and is only asking me $30 to remove it, isn't that a good deal?
  A - No, these programs are often just out for your money. If the program has scanned and found issues, that's the hard part. The actual fix should be easy, so the fact that it's waiting until then to make you pay shows that it's just after your money. This is especially true if the program doesn't actually tell you what and where the problems are, this shows that the makers of the program don't want you going and fixing it yourself. They're not interested in actually fixing your problem, they just want to scare you out of your money.

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