Nah, you just asked the right question for me.
You could ask 20 other unrelated questions, I'll probably be of no help. ;)

You lie; you're too modest.

So I've brought my PC to work and am staying after hours troubleshooting. Gotta say it's convenient having it set up right next to me and I can continue to surf the web and research on my office PC. So last night I spent a couple of hours reading through and taking notes on a series of steps I should take to try regaining control of my computer (READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide - MajorGeeks Support Forums). Unfortunately as I'm going through it, I'm having to skip steps because I simply don't have the privilege to access or run certain things. But I'm getting through what I can, as recommended.

So one thing I'd tried to do before was to get the latest MalwareBytes updates, but I was blocked from doing so. I was instructed to just grab the latest from the net and install it, which I did. And wow, I was watching the "objects infected" just add up as it was scanning...I was shocked when it got to around 40 (since it was detecting about 20 every time I ran it with the version I had installed before), and it just finished now with 219 infected objects!!! :eek: About to clear them...hope this does some good. There are still tons of steps to take but this better at least make a difference.

^

Sadly, you will never be able to catch them all.

One thing I highly recommend is installing an IP blocker like PeerBlock (which is what I use). Basically, it has a list of IP's and prevents them from gaining access to your computer. Not only is this effective in blocking most known malware/spyware, but it also conveniently blocks government and *ahem* RIAA IP's, so you can download music to your heart's content without ever really having to worry.

I keep PeerBlock running 24/7 and running this with an everyday antivirus program has done wonders. I haven't had a single problem yet.

^ Cool thanks for the tip.

In the good news department, I'm now able to log into my regular profile (the one with all admin privileges...yes I will change that later). This has allowed me to uninstall more stuff and run more fixing apps. :)

I have a question here. What is a VPN Client? I am confused.

The reason why I am confused is because I use a VPN Client every time I use the Internet. But I'm not exactly sure what it is or what it does. It's basically a little program thingy that connects me to Monash University (my old university and my brother's current university). The reason I use it is so I can have access to all of their pages, databases, and journals on the internet that you can only access through their proxy, and they have some great resources that are really useful for my current study. What happens is that I open the VPN Client program, log in with a Monash University login and password (my brother's), and then I'm connected and can access all of the Monash stuff. If I don't login to their proxy I can't access all of the stuff.

I was just basically wondering if anyone knows what how a VPN Client works. Is basically all it does is connect me to the Monash Uni proxy? What is a proxy anyway? I know that it changes my IP address, too.

I don't need tech support per se, I'm just curious as I don't really know much about 'VPN Clients' and 'proxies.'

:)

VPN means virtual private network. The idea is that you can have a private secure VPN operating on top of an unsecure public network (i.e. the Internet). It's a cost-effective secure way to allow students/staff (and no-one else) to access resources on university servers from anywhere.

A simple setup for Monash would be to have a VPN server serving uni resources to any students who are using VPN clients. A more secure solution involves placing a proxy server in between the clients and servers. A proxy server is basically an intermediate system which receives requests from clients and forwards them to real servers such that clients never talk directly to the real servers and all they see is the proxy (more secure this way amongst other things).

Proxies are a pretty general concept though. E.g. you can use a web proxy like this to anonymously surf the net. By anonymously, I mean that your internet provider knows you're using the proxy but the sites that you access only see the proxy accessing them, not you.

Hope that explanation wasn't too long-winded.

Not at all, thanks for the explanation! I totally get it now. Monash does use a proxy server in between as well. Thanks for explaining :) I've been doing this for years but never actually knew how it worked! Cool beans.

Well I think I've really F-ed things up this time. I had made progress yesterday, finally being able to log into my regular account, without being locked out of certain things, despite still having some visible spyware/malware (some fake antivirus BS popping up). But it was real progress. But I decided to keep going through my long list of steps (from the link I posted last time) and the next step was running ComboFix. Part way through that scan it had to reboot, and I haven't been able to launch Windows since! Not even in safe mode. This is the suck. :( I don't think I have an original XP Disc either, didn't get one shipped with my computer (but will search at home later).

I've just been searching Dell and Microsoft support for answers...nothing good yet.

If you can list all the steps you took, in detail, we might be able to identify what happened and how to fix it.

Edit:
Nvm... let me read those steps involved in the link and I'll get back to you.

Ok, looking over those steps I can only generally assume that you didn't break anything accidentally as a result of following them.
Just for a little clarification, when you turn your computer on... what happens exactly?