Ahimsa, Sony/Sound Forage offers a decent DirectX noise reduction program that used to include " vinyl restoration". Quite nice actually but I also in many ways prefer Adobe Audition's noise reduction feature more. As opposed to " vinyl restoration", clicks and pops along with hiss and surface noise are processed individually. A little bit more exacting but requires a little more familiarity and finesse.

These noise reduction applets are fabulous but can easily be overused and can adversely affect the tonal quality of the sound. So in this respect, it's absolutely LESS IS MORE. I'll frequently remove clicks and pops manually for least noise reduction artifacts. The noise reduction process by itself can produce some pretty ugly sounds. A bubbly underwater like sample and hold effect. I just hate that sound. It's worse than the cliques & pops + surface noise.

I like this clique
Ms. Remy Ann David

I'm drowning!
Ms. Remy Ann David

There are lots of inexpensive products out there- some are better than others. The best stuff I've seen out there are Cedar and Audiocube. You'll pay more for these, though, than a lot of cars cost.

Mid price, Algorithmix does very well. You're looking at a couple grand per plugin, though (and yes that is cheaper than Cedar and the Cube). There are also lots of cheap things from Waves plugs to the ones that come with Sequoia (and you can get for Samplitude) to the Izotope RX, etc... They all have their good and bad points. In general, the harder you hit them, the worse they sound and none of them sound like the high end stuff.

The question becomes: "How much is it worth to you?"

--Ben