My computer is in distress. It's just been overrun by spyware and possibly viruses. Help!?

I have a laptop with Windows XP Pro. I only had a free antivirus program installed. My wife recently went to a music download site and the laptop has now been completely hijacked. Internet Explorer windows start popping up as soon as I boot up. It won't connect to my wireless network and is slow as a snail. Progams are getting installed automatically and there are icons all over the desktop. I downloaded Spybot and ran several scans, but it's not helping much. Is there anything I can do short of erasing the hard drive? Is that even going to solve the problem?

My computer is in distress. It's just been overrun by spyware and possibly viruses. Help!?best antivirus software

Try this free online tool

http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/...

My computer is in distress. It's just been overrun by spyware and possibly viruses. Help!?firewall

Almost the same thing happened to my computer. Depending on where your wife went, it could've been just a virus site where they "pretend" to give out music. if you're downloading programs such as Spybot it won't help. sometimes those are fake. since you have mostly no programs on there, try reformating your computer, i reformated mine and it really helps! but remember to back up all of your files. Good luck!