 The Spyware Vortex is spreading. Help!! Well, I wrote this one time and when I went to post it, it vanished. So, I'll try again. If this shows up as a duplicate, please forgive me. I'm new here.
Now to the problem. I have a lady friend who is handicapped and with serious medical problem (heart trouble, diabetes and high blood pressure) who has no patience and zero computer knowledge beyond the fact that it works whenever she uses it (and she uses computers at work). She also has virtually no money to spend on problems beyond rent, utilities, food and medicine. As a result, I wind up being considered her IT specialist, despite the fact that I'm on an intermediate level at best and not even that in some areas. Of course, compared to her I'm a computer genius!
Anyway, I helped her find a computer yesterday. It was an IBM E-Server with Windows XP, 256 megs of RAM and a Pentium 1.3 CPU. 20 GB hard drive. Appears to be a good machine. Took it to her house, set it up, installed a couple or three programs, made sure everything was running right and left.
Less than 24 hours later, I get a phone call. It wasn't working. Wouldn't load. Viruses on it. By the time I cut through the hysteria and made a trip to her house, it was hard to believe what I found. Oh, one other thing, her internet access is through Charter Cable. Now, back to the story. There were multiple closed loops going on, most having to do with virus scans and instructions to download various programs to make sure your system was secure. There was also a message that the Task Manager was disabled.
According to my friend, earlier today, the screen had been loaded with all kinds of ads for mortgages, banking, male enhancement, porn sites, etc. And the promos for virus protection and scanning were claiming that she had as many as 150+ viruses crawling around inside the computer.
When I finally managed to get IE working long enough to reach the AVG site, I downloaded AVG and tried to install it. Tried was the operative word since installation would not complete due to the impossibility of fully shutting down all the closed loop popups. No matter what I did, they continued to...pop up.
Adding insult to injury, the 'All programs' button that is located just above the 'Start' button is missing, along with the entire drop down programs menu. Apparently the programs are still there, though I'm basing this on the fact that the computer will load XP normally (except for the missing menu)...until the popups start again. Presumably this is because the various viruses are allowing the OS to load but are blocking all other parts of the hard drive. If you manage to get into Windows Explorer, you also find that the C and D drives are missing, A being the only one that show up.
Making things even worse is the fact that my friend barely managed to come up with the $65 it took to buy the box, which came with XP loaded but without an XP disc in the event the OS has to be reinstalled. And she definitely doesn't have the money to buy a copy of XP. This eliminates any possibility of either reformatting the hard drive or installing a replacement hard drive (unless it already has XP on it).
As I've said, I am in way over my head with this mess. I don't have a clue where to start in the first place or exactly how to proceed if I did. Can anyone help me get my friend out of this mess and expand my knowledge in the process? It will need to be very precise step-by-step instructions, but your help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you. | 
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