Virus Attack - Defence

I suspected my E&H Office machine had some malware that prevented me from launching any programs. Here is what I did based on Gary Akerman's recommendations:

• I first updated the Symantech Virus while still logged in. I did this by double clicking the gold shield in the task bar and choosing the update choice. Gary suggested that this might be doable once I was in the Safe Mode.
• I turned the machine off, waited about 60 seconds, and logged back in using the "Safe Mode". To do this I held down the F8 key after turning the machine on and followed the prompts to log in to my account, which has adminsistrator rights. I found that I could not log in without choosing "Login with Network c
• I then brought up the Symantech software and started a complete disk skan. This took about two hours. No problems were found.

I did not update the anti-spyware software and use it.. but probably should have.