What steps to make my computer safe?

I had some viruses on my laptop and was having a hard time trying to remove them. So I gave up and repaired Windows XP. What steps/programs would you recommend I install to keep my computer safe? I need it to be free and also another note I play WoW so what steps should I take to protect against key loggers?

Download Clamwin, a free and great virus and spyware tool, regularly updated. This is Open source software, and works great too. Please note that McAfee and Norton use a lot of system resources, where clamwin run on almost none.

**How to start your PC in Safe Mode**