hackers do not go to this much troubel for teh average home user you have to be realy realy unlucky to be a victim of been hacked especialy to the level where they get information about your passwords for email accounts and ebay
by the tiem you have installed all the applications people have recomemnded all you will end up with is a slow pc
windows xp comes with a firewall which is ample enough for any home user and avg will scan well enough for viruses etc
adaware which everyone raves on about is garbage and teh last time i used it and ran spybot seach and destroy( a much better application ) it showed adaware to conatin spyware and half teh stuff it finds it dosnt remove
you can either sit there crapping your self behind 20 applications hoping you dont get hacked or take reasonable steps and relax
hackers are like car theirves , if they want into your pc tehy will get in just like a car theif will get into a car no matter how good the alarm
ps:
the only computer that cant be hacked is one thats not plugged into teh net
take accyweb for example , roy knows what hes doing but the site still got taken down by hackers , there is always a way no matter what steps you take