SpywareBlaster works great...if they had it installed beforehand. Adaware will detect the newer variants, but can't do anything about it yet. CWS shuts down Spybot. As Undertaker mentioned, some kind of registry monitor is pretty much mandatory.

There are all kinds of new anti-spyware tools hitting the market daily. One of the nicer ones I was fortunate enough to test is from Prevx.com. It is an application that monitors the registry, all critical windows files, locks down IE, and Microsoft Works applications. Couple that with a firewall and an AV, and a typical home user will be in good shape.

It mostly comes down to having a few simple protections in place to begin with. ActiveX should be disabled (IMHO) by default. It's once it gets in that it sucks. Home users have to take on an almost corporate approach to security by providing themselves layers of protection.

The poor common computer user doesn't stand a chance. They think they Norton is going to keep them safe. I know that on my system, if my AV is popping off, I'm probably already screwed because it got past my other defenses.

People talk about viruses and such causing so many dollars worth of damage, I'd really like to see figures on expenses due to removal and lost time from crap like CWS.

The good side of all of it, if there is a good side, is that more and more people are getting so fed up with it, that they are setting aside their feelings of intimidation, and trying to take their computers back. So they register at different forums and ask for help. I have tons of admiration for that, and I will do what I can to help them learn to be comfortable with their systems, and how to protect themselves.

Does that answer your question in a round-about way?