Beginner in Trouble

Hi there, I'm a virgin Threader so go easy on me. My IE explorer homepage keeps defaulting to a page I don't want and it has added links in my Favorites Menu. I also think I have loads of things on my computer that I don't think should be there. As far as I know I only have the free ZoneAlarm Firewall download as security. Looking at some of the questions I've read this doesn't seem enough. Please could you help me 'clean up' my computer as I'm ok working it but don't understand what goes on behind the scenes. So the idiots guide would be helpful.
Thanks

 

Hi There,
First of all you require an up-to-date and active Anti-Virus Program ....
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_updt6.php?lng=fe
Download, Install, Update and run !

IE defaulting to wrong web page is caused by Spyware...
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/
Is for ad-aware !
http://tomcoyote.com/SPYBOT/index1.php
Download, Install, Update & Run both programs !

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html
Is for CWShredder, download and run !

At this stage, if you have followed the above, computer should be running quite a bit smoother, if not reply to this post for further instructions.

Good Luck !