For my home user clients (which I do have a few of), I recommend the following setup:
1. Avast! Antivirus. It has a malware plug-in as part of it that does catch a great deal. It's also a lightweight antivirus program, using a fraction of the resources of AVG 8.0, McAfee and the Symantec products.
Side note: The Trend Micro products are also very good. But security suites in general are quite bloated. It is better to stick with a basic antivirus program and do your spyware/malware/adware control separately.
I have witnessed numerous virii walk right by F-Secure products but get picked up by Avast.
2. Spybot. Grab 1.6, update it, then immunize. It blocks a good deal of the junk right off the hop so you are less likely to be exposed to it.
The above is normally quite effective at keeping you protected.
There are programs that Spybot may not detect. Other anti-malware software may detect them. This is unfortunately the nature of this game, there is no anti-malware program that is 100% effective. And many of the ones that people purchase are less effective than Spybot or Ad-Aware.
The program I mentioned in my original post has, in my experience, been very effective at removing trojans that masquerade as antivirus software. I would give it a try to get rid of the issue you are having currently. I would also heed Tim H's suggestion of disabling system restore as well. Do this BEFORE you attempt removal. It will increase the likelihood of success.
Let us know how you make out.
-Chris
