I’ve been researching adware and spyware since it messed up my computer a few years ago. I’ve got some things to add and change on your idea.

First off: If you have a reliable firewall (like COMODO or Sunburst/Kerio Firewall), don’t worry about not saving passwords. Trojans are *usually* the only programs that will try to steal passwords, and your firewall will notify you of any suspicious outbound connections (trojan programs trying to transmit your passwords, for example).

Now, the next thing I’m addressing is your bias against Microsoft. It’s fine, many of us have the same problem, me included. Just try to keep it objective. Windows Defender is actually a relatively good tool. And while you say that it’s no better than Spybot or AdAware, that doesn’t make it worse than those programs. I’ve used all three, and they’re all about the same; I personally found Windows Defender easier to use. I would certainly recommend it. However, your perceptions on Internet Explorer are 100% accurate: it’s buggy, easy to exploit, and widely targeted. I highly recommend using Firefox (if you like customizing your browser) or Opera (if you want a fast and reliable browsing experience). Both are far more secure than Internet Explorer.

Also, note that whenever I talk about security, I have to ramble about anti-virus for a few minutes. It’s habit. I’ll keep it brief, though. AVG has a superb free anti-virus program you can use. Their site is at http://free.grisoft.com/. Try it on, see how you like it.

You mention web toolbars. Most are spyware, this is true. However, some are legitimate and can be installed. I believe I used to have the “Crawler” toolbar on my computer. It worked superbly. It had a few security features (such as telling you if you’re heading to a blacklisted site) and some convenience features (a search box, for example). Feel free to look it up if you’re into toolbars. I personally think they’re ugly, though. I tend not to use them.

Finally, you mention HijackThis!; I cannot in good conscience recommend this program to anybody but the most advanced Windows user (if you can name essential NT services and registry values offhand, feel free to ignore my advice). If you do choose to use this program, the best way to do it is to find a good tech forum and post your results there. They’ll tell you which entries are bogus.

That’s all I can add. Keep safe, I guess.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

Hope this clears up any confusion….