I too would love to know how to find and access that sort of log just in case. Knock wood, I've been very lucky. I'm also (so I've been told) completely paranoid. Seems you have to spend more time on the computer getting updates and scanning than anything else anymore!
I use McAfee av and like it alot. I had Norton, but for some bizarre reason it and my computer didn't get along at all. Installed Norton and everything went green - my desktop wallpaper, icons, etc., internet - everything had a green tint to it. So back to McAfee. I do miss their Clinic, but that costs extra now.
I have Stinger stand alone, which you can download for free from the McAfee site and that will scan for trojans, etc. - very useful. That one saved my roommate's computer when the Doom virus hit - she got it but Stinger got rid of it.
I also have ad-aware (free version), Spybot 1.3 (the newer version) and SpywareBlaster - that's not a spyware remover, it's more of a preventative thing. It will automatically place bad sites (pop-up stuff, adware, malware, drive-bys, etc.) in your restricted sites and block them from getting cookies.
Whatever av/spyware programs you have, when you scan, make sure you're doing a deep scan and make sure you have your system restore disabled while you're scanning. That is very important. Otherwise, the programs may find the bad stuff and get rid of it, but technically it's still sitting in your computer in the restore.
After you scan, clean, remove anything needed, then you enable the restore again. Sounds like a pain, I know, but it's not really and it's worth the extra step. Also don't be online when you scan, shut down anything else that's running. Go eat lunch or dinner, take a walk, whatever, as a deep scan will take quite some time (on av anyway).
I look for spyware updates about once a week, my av auto updates and I scan once a week. I also clear cookies, temporary internet and history after I leave any site, I do NOT ever use instant message service and almost no one knows my email - I have different ones for different things and none of my usernames/passwords have any relation to anything else.
If you use IE6, make sure you have all the critical updates - 5 were released on the 13th and they were all security updates.
Either you've got a virus, trojan, some bad spyware or it's someone who knows you and for whatever reason seems to have it in for you
