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Try taking a look at Hitman Pro 2 (http://www.hitmanpro.nl/) (the page is in Dutch, but the "Download" link near the top-right is in English (or maybe it's just the same word in Dutch), and the installer and program can run in English).

While you are correct that multiple programs are often needed, Hitman Pro is a meta- spyware/virus remover which makes that issue much simpler for the user. It downloads, installs, and/or updates (whichever are necessary, and giving you the option to read all EULAs etc or not) serveral antispyware and antivirus programs and runs them all, giving a comprehensive report at the end. You can configure it to leave out any programs you choose. One great thing about this is that even a user who doesn't/can't keep track of which programs exist that are good can be pretty safe with this, because if a new (good) program comes out, Hitman Pro can start using it without the user having to find out that it is a good program and going to the effort to download it. Hitman Pro does a few things itself (rather than relying 100% on other programs), some of which include useful innoculations that most people would have to do by hand otherwise.

In short, although the good side is disorganized, I think Hitman Pro mitigates to a large extent many of the effects of that disorganization.

A Dutch guy made an "all-in-one" solution http://www.hitmanpro.nl/ for spyware. It's basically a script downloading, installing and executing AdAware, SpySweeper and other stuff. It works well to protect computers of the unitiated, the clickhappy and the careless (names referring to parents and other relatives:))

Of course if you want to be 100% sure a format would work. DO NOT RUN A LOW LEVEL FORMAT! I seen it recommended it's just wrong... Low-level Formatting creates the Tracks and Sectors on a blank hard drive. The drives you buy today are Low-level Formatted at the factory. Low-level Formatting these hard drives yourself is not recommended.

But not everyone can or wants to go trough the trouble of formatting so what can we do next?

My standard way to get spyware of a box:

run crapcleaner this will remove a lot of useless files just make sure you only select the sections you want deleted. Don't use the reg clean unless you know what you're doing.

Next up would be the running the standard anti virus programs I personally use hitmanpro the site is dutch but the program is English it includes most trusted anti-spyware products and runs them all in a row and automatically removes anything and makes up a html page of what it did.

Still not gone?

- If you know the name of the spyware it might be worth googling chances are you find a special removal tool.

- In my case I can spot bad programma's and spyware as a process with the use of HijackThis and sysinternals process explorer. But be sure to google all the processes you don't trust before deleting them. This way of deleting is not recommended for your average computer user (then again you post on slashdot so your probably fine..)

- Some times it's required to boot in to safemode to remove some files

Ok now that you're cleaned you don't want this sort of thing to happen again there are a few common practices:

- Don't be YES man don't just click YES and NEXT on every box that pops-up also instruct any family members to do the same.

- Run as a normal user instead of administrator

- Make sure windows is up to date

- Some browsers such as firefox make it easier to avoid spyware though this requires some plugins. recommended are adblock + gblocklist

Useful links:

google: http://justfuckinggoogleit.com/
;)
crapcleaner: http://ccleaner.com/

hitmanPro: http://hitmanpro.nl/

HijackThis: http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/

Process explorer: http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplo rer.html

Firefox browser: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

adblock: https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php ?id=10&application=firefox

gblock list for adblock: https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php ?id=1136&application=firefox

hope it helps...

There is an interesting application called HitmanPro that uses most of the anti-spyware software available in the internet and uses them all to automatically find all the shit hidden. The website is in Dutch but the software is in German and English as well.

Please, mirror the site asap and make available extra copies of the program.

All any-spyware programs have their strengths and weaknesses. Hitman Pro capitalizes on this and uses a wide range of anti-spyware programs at once. It downloads, configures, and installs many of the leading free anti-spyware tools and runs them sequentially. It then follows up with a spyware scan of its own. At the end of it's multiple scans, it displays a complete html report of what was found and cleaned and saves the report in its log directory. It takes about an hour to run first time aroud, and even my non-technical friends found it fairly easy to use - although they were at first a little surprised that their computer was automatically installing and configuring programs by itself. Frequently one anti-spyware program will pick up code that another anti-spyware has missed but at the end of the cleanup, almost all Spyware instances will have been found and either cleaned or deleted. It's worth a look. I keep it on my usbdrive for any computer housecalls I make regarding spyware.

... which can be found at http://www.hitmanpro.nl/

Hitman Pro is a meta-tool, an aggregate of 10 antispyware tools that automagically downloads and runs these tools with as little fuss as possible. Unfortunately the whole page is in Dutch, but the Download button is quite visible, and the software itself may be run with an English interface (self-explanatory).

A (rather outdated) manual can be found at http://xthost.info/hitmanual/. Enjoy!

From my understanding, Hitman Pro uses all those programs under one roof. It's a dutch site for me, but from the download section I see they also offer English versions of them.

Microsoft announced that its anti-spyware solution will be handed over to Claria for further improvements...

Seriously, look for alternatives to be on the safe side (English version out soon).

here...
It's (still) only in Dutch, but it has a very easy click-and-remove action using multiple anti-spyware programs (spybot, adaware, etc).
It will at least save you the drive to [name family/relative/friend name of choice here], in case their (Windows) computer slows down again :)

Since a few days, I use HitmanPro. It's a program that has a bunch of anti-spyware apps rolled in one. Spyware blaster, AdAware, Spybot are a few that are being used. It auto-updates all packages and runs all of them sequentially without interference (you can put it on hold or exit the program though). Easy to use and works great. You'll have to be running windows 2000 or higher, but that's about the only catch I could find.