Aww... that sucks...

*hugs* I'm very sorry to hear that. Please consider an old used Mac for connecting to the internet. You could get something for net use (OS X 10.4, 512 MB Ram) for about $100. OS X is really BSD UNIX with a user friendly shell. BSD UNIX was developed with grants from the US Dept. of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as a military security grade OS. I have been using it for four years with the free Firefox browser - with no firewall or anti-anyhying software - and have been completely free of malware problems. Windows was not originally designed as a network OS for an environment where there are enemies penetrating your net. BSD UNIX was designed with an integrated interlocking system of file ownerships and permissions for a global thermonuclear war environment.

Lol $100? something like that would go for $3-400 at least since the Mac nuts drive it up. Best bet would be to take an old POS computer you could find for under $25 and throw xubuntu or some other lightweight yet friendly linux.

Linux doesn't have all the security features of BSD UNIX. There is a free distribution of real BSD UNIX for Intel machines, though I have heard that it isn't easy to work with with because of a paucity of peripheral drivers. Nevertheless, Linux is far better than Windows, and your suggestion is certainly the least inexpensive and quite workable.

Yes, about $100. These are old slow (typically 300-700 MHz) IBM PowerPC G3 and G4 machines, usually with small screens but with a port where you can plug in a decent monitor. These machines certainly aren't capable of running Photoshop CS4 or Poser 8, but they adequate for web browsing with Firefox. Windows machines are fine for running heavy resource demand software such as Photoshop and Poser - so long as they aren't used to connect to untrustworthy sites on the web.

Here is a website devoted to inexpensive low end Macs:
http://lowendmac.com/ed/royal/08sr/.....-a-g3-mac.html

These very low cost systems are fine for highly secure web browsing, but don't expect them to handle heavy duty tasks like rendering.

I do have three Windows machines - none of which have ever been connected to any website other than Microsoft's.

*Chuckles* We get people looking to buy g3-g4 based systems willing to pay $500 some times at the shop. I know, I know it baffles me too as those are not hear worth the money. Personally I wouldn't spend a cent on them as the they are slow as hell, and most of them would be running an outdated os that has more cracks in it than windows 98. Even a fully patched mac was the first system to fall to hackers after just 2 minuets, the windows one being broken after it, the second day and having to use skype as the means to do so. The linux system was left untouched after the 3 day long event. Also about the trustworthiness of windows, 5 windows based os's 6 years, no firewall software, no antivirus (other than to scan the it's removed again), no problems, even though I spend pretty much my life on the internet. The only reason macs are secure is obscurity. Linux is typically more secure as the updates are more frequent, and typically will run better in a low power environment than apple's OSX. Every software has cracks.. apples plug your ears and ignore them approach is only going to work so long. I feel more confident placing my windows machines on the net than I would a mac after probing both OS's and seeing them probed by people with about 100x more skill at breaking things than me. However, I feel the most secure behind my Debian based Xubuntu 9.10 x64 system. That being said, I'd never, ever say something was unbreakable, as just like the titanic, Those who thing they are safe are the most vulnerable.

Like what we have on our machines.

Linux, dervied from BSD Unix.

Hundreds, if not thousands of distros are not only completely user friendly, but "self contained".
(In other words, you can use a peice of software built into it to find, download, and automagically install pretty much any software - or derivitave of any software.)

You can also install anti-malware on many of them, but again its not really needed.

As for that Window Firewall thing.
It's Windows Antivirus _InsertYearHere_

The first time it pops up, if you click on said popup ad (it is still an ad) it will begin to actually install on your machine. If ya don't, then you are safe.

Just remember, its the _only_ ad out there that claims your machine is infected. It's designed to do that to convince you that you need said Window Antivirus. That way you will install it and thus, infect your machine. And yes, it does this install method using ActiveX. So if you use IE - oh god why - then you need to be even that much more careful.

I've played with that ad on a dummy machine and FF. FF will not let it auto-install, as per the ActiveX is designed to in IE, so it'll download the .exe instead and not install unless ya click on it.

Now on another note, my extra Linux boxes are on sale for about $100 or so with shipping. Half off if ya can come and get em. (I recycle the things.)

I had that too had to reformat 100 percent

I wish I could have gotten ahold of you before that happened, what your talking about is called "XP defender" Ive had it and managed to get rid of it before. what it takes however is a complicated delete command I found online, after saving the command in notepad as "all files" it will appear as a registry file. after using it, XP Defender will be removed