Hardcore antivirus needed...

Well, my computer is now a cesspool of viruses. It's nothing really critical. It turns off and reboots as normal. But whenever I get home after leaving it on all day, I'm treated to about 87 pop-ups. Nothing works. What are some good, possibly free/trial antivirus/antispyware programs I can use to eliminate (or at least lessen) the infestation?

What I was trying to say in >>9 about IE was that you really should keep it patched, even if you never use it.  Any innocuous little app that uses IE as its html rendering engine or downloading engine (including explorer.exe) is susceptible to the same exploits as the copy of IE you have installed.  That's how crappy and dangerous IE is.

I never run IE, but I always keep it patched and I turn on the IE immunization features of Spybot S&D and SpywareBlaster.