I would most definately get Spywareblaster, any Spyware remover (ewido, Spybot, Ad-Aware, etc), and a software firewall (ZoneAlarm).

Those are the basics to prevention.

Running Firefox (which I think you already do) is going to help you a little bit if you do infact get infected. The reason why is probably more or less due to the fact that most viruses are tailored to exploiting IE's popularity and system inegration rather than Firefox's hailed security...

Basically, the same reason, due in part, as to why more Windows OS's get infected than Macs - more people use them. Of course there are other factors, but the sole purpose of a virus is to proliferate itself. Thus, as you know, the virus is tailored to infect the most commonly used device/software.


And Firefox is much more intuitive and everything else that is holy and good. I would get it just for the interface and options.