protecting your computer

I spent most of the past 24 hours working on my pc. Sometime after I went to work yesterday my daughter managed to download and install a trojan and it wouldn't even let my antivirus programs load so I couldn't remove it or shut it down. It kept popping up messages trying to make you think it was an av program. I finally did a system restore (love that about xp) and was able to start from a point prior to the infection. I have since istalled some programs to safeguard my pc. Before installing any of them, you should note they are only effective if you let them do their job. We have AVG but we would log off when not on the computer so it wouldn't be able to scan since it wasn't on, then when we got on we would tell it to stop scanning because it slowed us down. I have now set up automatic scans and let it run during the schedule time. AVG is a great free antivirus program.

Spyware-
I read a lot on these and I ended up installing spycatcher. http://www.tenebril.com/consumer/spyware/spycatcher.php
It doens't use a lot of memory or system resources but has been working great.

Spybot- lots of people recommended this one
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,22262-order,1-page,1-c,alldownloads/description.html

Antivirus
AVG- I have used this for years and its always worked great for me when you let it do its job. http://free.grisoft.com/

Anvir Virus Destroyer- http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/Anti-Virus_Utilities/AnVir_Virus_Destroyer.html
I like that it monitors and shows you whats happening on your pc.

Avast- this was already installed when I got my computer and I hadn't had any problems prior to yesterday and I blame that on my daughter shutting down the protecton software.
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

monitoring-
I have been using active security monitor from AOL(who I don't like btw) and I like it because it will scan your system and score you to let you know how your protection rates. You can click and it will give you details. Naturally the software it recommends tends to come from AOL but once you know what you need you can google and find all the other choices out there and investigate on your own.
http://www.tucows.com/preview/503605