What the heck is Spy Sheriff and how do I get rid of it? (Comp.Virus)

Factual Questions
1

Okay so I think I got a virus on my computer. Darn thing, I browse so much.

Thing is, I don’t know how to remove it.

I tried googling and came up with this website, however I’m so paranoid I have no idea whether this information is safe or not.
I tried to uninstall it from Add/Remove programs (Win XP) however it says that I don’t have access privaleges.

Silly thing is, I had enabled my firewall so it was quite a mystery why the heck it was disabled in Properties.

However, reading the above site apparently this is exactly what this turd does. It get’s into your system and changes particular settings.
Anyhoo, long story short I want the sucker removed. How the heck do I go about doing this? Can I trust above site to do it for me? Any other ideas then?

I should get a copy of FSecure 2nite (Anti-virus). I didn’t get it before and perhaps that was a silly blunder. Oh well, live and learn.
Oh, and also is anyone else familiar with this Spy Sheriff virus? Can whoever planted it there actually steal information from my computer? Not that I have anything of importance on there, but I’d like to know all the same.

Also, since I don’t really know much about computers, can you tell me whether or not it is an individual hacker that has sent me this program or whether it’s automatically activated by (perhaps) downloading stuff off the net (which I do a lot)?
And if I am still on-line, can a hacker know which sites I’m visiting and my password authorisation details (for example, to the SDMB)? I’m assuming some guy across the net has established a connection with my computer somehow - but this could be wrong and I see no evidence.

Please fill me in on the details.

2

Bleeping Computer (the site you found) is generally accurate. I wouldn’t be worried about the advice there, and from what I see (and I’ve also seen similar advice on other antispyware sites), it looks like you can follow it without problem (as long as you follow it carefully).

It probably wasn’t sent by an individual; most likely it got downloaded from a file, or was bundled with other “free” software. It probably isn’t keylogging; more likely, it’s hijacking your browser or giving you popup ads, but I don’t see much literature on it.

3

Just so you know MadderMitch, on these boards RealityChuck is our best source for information on dealing with these sorts of computer problems so he isn’t steering you wrong.

4

Cool