unwanted programs when downloading

I have numerous unwanted programs on my computer from downloading from the internet. The programs are not something I wanted to download or even requested to be done. When I try to delete them I get an error stating thet are in use and now my Norton internet security is going off constantly because each of these progams is trying to access the internet. How do I get rid of them and how do I prevent them in the future. Thank you very much for your help.

Which programs are these? Xupiter or something like that?

Get some spyware/adware remover like spybot, search this site, you'll find enough info.
It's probably that

[edit]
I apology for this one liner answer but I was on the phone when posting this
nihil gave you the information you need...
[/edit]

You need to get AdAware 6.0 from lavasoft and SpyBot search and Destroy. Update the definitions then run them in SAFE MODE (that way the targets may not get booted first)

Go to http://www.swatit.org Do the same with SwatIT.

Go to http://www.winpatrol.com WinPatrol is a useful product.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com

Hijack Blaster, Spyware Blaster nd Spyware Guard are worth having.

http://www.diamondscs.com.au RegistryProt will stop a lot of this stuff getting into the registry.

http://www.webattack.com/get/hostadmin.html This gets ones that hide in the Windows hosts file.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/index.html Get "Hijack This" It will show you stuff that is running. Be careful, it shows everything. The questionable ones are usually at the beginning and the end.


Good Luck :D

I am using spybot and I like it. It has found most problems on my machine here is the link.

This is added to nihil's post. Good post Nihil


Hope this helps.


Adiz