Once infected, forget about it.<p>I've been infected by viruses three times.  Twice were before this year, and it takes some quick work, but both times it was no real challenge to stabilize my machine, so beyond feeling really stupid for a few hours, it ended up being kind of fun.<p>In November, though, I infected my machine again.  Three days later, it was still phoning home to Russia and the Ukraine.  There was literally nothing I could do - even Malwarebytes and the like would clean it up only to a certain extent, and the viruses were still embedded in the system software.  Finally I just gave up and bought a new machine so I could start from scratch, only pulling data from the old machine.<p>A good AV won't let you get infected - you still shouldn't allow actions that look fishy or unexpected, but at least you're in control.  But once you're infected, the botnet can respond in realtime to what you're trying to do to stop it.  And they're better than you are at it.<p>I'm not saying it's impossible to clean up a machine that's fallen into their hands - but I am saying that even with some past success in this under my belt, I was unable to do it in any amount of time that was justified (even in terms of fun).