BleepingComputer.com: Something's Infected My PC

thanks for replying. what's still wrong is everything i had at the beginning of this thread - synaptics pointing device is still trying to make changes to the harddrive aka install something. i still can't right-click on either the left side of an explorer window or the task bar without that action crashing out explorer. this only started happening when something took out spybot and my firewall for a few minutes when it downloaded itself so i'm confused. i admit it doesn't take much to confuse me about computers lol and i will try running gimp to see how it behaves. i really appreciate your help, thank you.

gimp almost crashes out when i open it up which is not how it used to be ...

Lets try creating another account via User Accounts in control Panel and give it administrative rights and turn of UAC and see if it makes a difference?

sure, i'm game. i'll go create that second account with full admin privileges and then log in through it, see if everything is behaving the same? thank you.

how long is the setup supposed to take? i've been looking at a blue screen with a little box called ''personalized settings'' saying it's setting up personalized settings for the new account... for like 20 minutes. nothing but a blue screen, the mouse and the little box. thank you.

It shouldn't take that long to login to a new account.

i gave up and went back to the primary account. as soon as i was back at the primary account, i get a request from my firewall to let ''pinto'' access the internet. what is pinto? thank you

I think at this point in troubleshooting, some more tools that I do not have training in need to be used.

Please follow the instructions in ==>Malware Removal and Log Section Preparation Guide<==.

Once the proper logs are created, then make a NEW TOPIC and post it ==>HERE<== Please include the link to this topic in your new topic and a description of your computer issues and what you have done to resolve them.

If you can produce at least some of the logs, then please create the new topic and explain what happens when you try to create the log(s) that you couldn't get. If you cannot produce any of the logs, then still post the topic and explain that you followed the Prep. Guide, were unable to create the logs, and describe what happens when you try to create the logs.

Once you have created the new topic, please reply back here with a link to the new topic.

Most importantly please be patient till you get a reply to your topic.

thank you for all your help. i will do this tomorrow and deny ''pinto'' tonight. if i can't get the logs produced under regular mode, should i go to safe mode? thank you.

Yes perform the logs in safe mode and state that.

What IP was pinto trying to access?

will do, thank you.

i have no idea - pc tools firewall plus just tells me what is trying to get to the internet, not where it wants to go :/