Two anomailies after anti-spyware cleaning

Version 4.2.67.10 on XP Sp3

Suspecting the presence of spy/malware I cleaned with CCleaner, AdAware and Malware, and following advice from a friend, installed and ran Stopzilla.
Even after the other scans Stopzilla found more that 20 "suspect entries" - just too many to be believable - before I aborted and removed the program.

Since then:
- Eset doesn´t load on Startup. in fact there is no entry for Eset in the Msconfig Startup list. When I start it from the Start Menu the icon appears on the taskbar and the startupscan runs.
- There is a folder called "Recycler" on each of my drives that was not there before. I dont know what the Windows recycler functiuon is for but If I understand correctly Recycler is a potential home for badstuff. Why are the folders there, is it a risk, and can I remove it?

As usual, thank you for your service.
Nicholas


Update:
I have now updated to 5.0.94.0 and Eset runs on startup.
So whats the deal with the Recycler folders?

 

Those are just the Recycle Bin - they're usually hidden so you can't see them while browsing your Windows drives.

You can't delete the recycler folders as they're part of the system, but you can clear them out by emptying the recycle bin, if it contains unwanted or suspicious files.