Recommendation to eliminate this...

From: Saga (antiSpam_at_somewhere.com)
Date: 09/29/04 

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 11:53:10 -0500

Hi all. Well, I got zapped by something undesirable. I was doing some
research yesterday and apparently I must have visited a "bad" website. I
will try to describe this as best as possible.

Now everytime I open my ie, I get this tab at the top of the page. It
starts with a Search text area, then a button, then the following tabs:
Dell, Online, Coupons, Search and Stores. These change depending on
which web site I am currently in.

Also, I now have a new task bar at the botton of the screen. This
taskbar is not part of ie, rather it looks like it is an independent
window. This task tab has two rows of icons on the left hand side. The
first row reads: Make Money, Music, Casino and the second row reads:
Investing, Travel, Mortgage. The mid section of the task bar contains
two rows of combo lists an they are labeled (the caption is inside the
list): Dating, Travel and Careers on the first row and on the second row
it reads: Credit, Computers and Insurance. Finally, the right hand side
of the task bar contains yet another search mechanism, with its usual
text area and button.

I also noticed that my desktop had new icons. There were Internet
Connect, Ink Cartridges, Casino, Poker and perhap another one that I
can't remember.

I am aware that there are various software applications to deal with
this, but which one would be recommended for this particular kind of
pest? Also, is there any way of knowing where I could have caught this
"virus". I would like to avoid getting it again.

Thanks for any and all recommendations!
Saga