I had a program download itself w/o my consent.
I unloaded it but still get bombarded with pop-ups
containing all sorts of potential viruses.
My spyware and anti-virus catches them and sets them
into the quarentine room where I delete them later.
However, it still slows things down and sometimes
freezes up the system.
I re-boot and all is well only to have it return at
some point later on.
Is there any anti adware I can load to clean this
crap out or do I need to re-format?
Any advise appreciated.

We had a similar problem with one of the PC's at work. We got so fed up with it we reformatted the hard drive. I know it's extreme, and there has to be a better solution, but for us it was easier to do that.

We even tried installing firefox to see if that made a difference. Whatever was screwing up IE, it also prevented us from going to firefox. Go figure...

Have you tried doing a system restore to a couple days ago??

Then run another full scan :)

Good luck!

I had a similar problem a while back. I was able to fix mine by going to: www.trendmicro.com and running HouseCall.

Much to my chagrin, I picked up my first bit of spyware too. What's most annoying is that the spyware is an ad for supposedly anti-spyware. Sheesh. Anyway, the free stuff I've tried hasn't spotted it. Perhaps I'll try HouseCall.

Look for stuff in your Program Files that shouldn't be there.

Yes. Anything that was created on the day it started.

Trendmicro might be a good idea. It would it be a good idea to download and install "Spybot Search and Destroy" in order to find out exactly what you have. Spyware can infect a machine and it can be very, very difficult to remove. You need to find out exactly what has infected your machine and do a google search to find how to remove it. Take my advice, start finding out how to boot into safeboot, chances are you're going to need it, dammit.

Look for stuff in your Program Files that shouldn't be there.

Tried that - it's not that obvious.

Look for stuff in your Program Files that shouldn't be there.
Your normal everyday Joe wouldn't have a clue what to look for...

I had this issue. It got so bad that I had to reformat eventually. I tried a couple of free spyware-type programs first but made little progress. I found that my spyware programs kept quarantining the same files each time I ran the program, so it seemed whatever was on my computer was able to keep reinstalling itself even after isolating them.

I suggest you start creating backup copies of your most important documents/files now before you reach the point where your computer is practically inoperable.

Dont pay for any anti spyware/adware/virus. The best stuff is free. Heres a list of the best free anti-spyware, anti-adware, anti-virus. (http://freedomsforums.com/spyware-adware-viruses-t22.html)