that even with a firewall (ZoneAlarmPro) and a good Anti-Virus program (NOD32) you still need their protection. Do you agree? I was searching a reg cleaner once and it actually directed me to a site with a bunch of porn links and NOD32 immediately launched its ugly red eye and warned me of a trojan.
The virus industry and spyware industry haven't merged yet, sadly. The ones that claim they have are not doing a very good job. (Norton pretends to remove spyware, but it really only removes spyware that's crossed over into "virus" territory, and even then doesn't really remove anything else (registry entries, misc files, etc)). Have you ever noticed that virus scanners never check the registry for anything? Am I the only one that sees a problem there?
So yeah, you need an anti-spyware solution, which sadly, has to be like 3 or 4 programs. I currently recommend Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, IE-Spyad (for those who use IE-core-based programs), and Spywareblaster.
First, download this Anti-Malware Package, it contains everything you need to effectively clean your computer.
Next, refer to this PC Maintenance website, as it will tell you the settings you need and everything to effectively clean your computer. Then you can post your HijackThis log here if you want.