I have tried many different versions of anti-virus & anti-malware...I keep going back to Symantec products even though there are aspects I hate about them. I highly recommend checking PC Magazine (
http://www.pcmag.com) editorial reviews of anti-malware suites. They generally are quite thorough, although they can sometimes not be the most up to date, which can be frustrating since often one year's darling is next year's lemon upon release but you don't know that until you install it! Be careful of anti-malware review links that pop up from search engine results, often they are PAID advertising sites disguised as consumer reviews.
I have my eye on an emerging product, for corporate environment: Vipre Enterprise. It still isn't "all there" yet IMO, but it looks promising, particularly in its light system footprint. There is another new one Prevx, I may consider for home use, that takes a different approach than most current products. It relies mainly on program behavior characteristics, and only downloads what it needs from the distributor site to clean up actual infections. The malware signature database is stored online. This means it is very lightweight on system resources, but also means it can't do its thing without an Internet connection.
I abandoned McAfee in both corporate and home use a while back. After trying several different releases, concluded it was just too buggy for my applications, and caused a lot of problems for me in terms of troubleshooting, although some of their enterprise data encryption and security products seem very comprehensive. Still, if you have McAfee, and it is stable for you, there is no real question that it is an effective product in the fight against malware. I had thought to make the switch to Kapersky 2 years ago, but at the last minute changed my mind and went to Norton 360. I thought Norton 360 was pretty buggy in the first release, but it got better in the 2nd, and now the 3rd release seems much more stable, although it is still something of a resource pig. Kapersky rates consistently highly, I think what eventually changed my mind about switching was their heuristic or pro-active models and actual success in removal, were less effective than Symantec in many situations. Still a user really can't go wrong with choosing any of the major providers, IMO.
As for spot checking and supplemental malware removal, I haven't found one magic bullet, and don't think anyone else has either. I use a combination of free and subscription based products, but typically only have 1 major anti-malware suite installed because they often do not play nice together and can severely impact system resources. I like TrendMicro's free online malware scanning utility, HouseCall, SpyBot Search & Destroy freeware, and SuperAntiSpyware Professional. Kapersky now offers a free online malware scan too. Please note, there are some malware products with very similar names to these valuable utilities. Make sure you only use the developer or original distributor sites to download.
Free online malware scanners:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
SpyBot Search & Destroy Freeware anti-spyware program
http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html
SuperAntiSpyware (subscription based anti-malware)
http://www.superantispyware.com/
-Skylark
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