Best prevention for a refreshed XP install?

[MPTech]

My friend caught a serious RootKit earlier this week and really strangled his PC. I was able to backup all of his files and reformat the HDD and re-install XP Home SP3. I've got it all loaded and running well now, so now I'd like to put some precautions on so this doesn't happen again.

Here's my plan, but I haven't kept up on the latest & greatest and don't know what to install for RootKit prevention. It's not my PC, so I'm just looking for Free apps, but if there is something worthwhile, I'll let him know and he can purchase it.

Ad-Aware
Super AntiSpyWare
SpyWareBlaster
SpyWareGuard
Windows Firewall


I also heard that MS Essentials was very good

please comment / recommend, thanks!

[Shinma]

Suggest limiting anti-malware to just two of them.

Use cloning software for backup.

[SuperSparks]

MS Security Essentials is indeed excellent. Personally, I don't use any of the others. I do swear by having a decent hardware firewall, and using Windows Firewall as a second line of defence.

But the most important thing is to practice safe surfing, and to always keep Windows fully updated. Most rootkits and other exploits get on there because patches haven't been applied to well known vulnerabilities. Or they get the user to click on something they shouldn't.

[SpywareDr]

FWIW - My security quicklist for setting up XP systems:

Hardware firewall (NAT router)
Google DNS servers (8.8.8.8, and 8.8.4.4)
Windows Updates (ALL of 'em)
Microsoft Security Essentials
WinPatrol
Malwarebytes
SUPERAntiSpyware
SpywareBlaster
Panda USB Vaccine
Firefox
NoScript (in Firefox)
WOT (in both IE and Firefox)
CCleaner
ATF-Cleaner
MRU-Blaster
And a link to Secunia's Online Software Inspector