| Having an up to date AV system in place is essential if you want to avoid having to strip down and rebuild your complete system.
I also had the CoolWebSearch (CWS) spyware infection on one of my laptops and the only way around it was to reformat the disk and start again. The older versions of Norton didn't detect Spyware (as it wasn't strictly a virus) so using something like Spybot and Adaware in conjuction with an AV should be a good safeguard. I believe the latest Norton (2005?) also has spyware detection in it - but I would advise not relying on only one means of protection, use Spybot or Adaware alongside your AV program even if they appear to do similar things. | 
Hybrid Mode
