PC crippled

hi. my other machine would appear to be crippled by a browser hijacker, which changes the homepage to 'support32' or somesuch, and ultimately closes not only IE, but the whole PC shuts down with no more warning than a small, fake windows message saying it is shut down. Now the problem is this is an old machine, and as such is only connected to the internet via 56k dial up. This machine however is connected to broadband for the next 3 days, and as such i need your help in downloading as much software as possible that can then be transferred on to a CD+RW and subsequently put on the old machine to help rectify this. About a year ago i had a similar problem whilst using that very machine, and this could well be a relapse, but all anti virus software has been removed. At the time i came on this forum and there was a standard lis of software and links for download, plus a detailed set of instructions.
Im pretty much an amateur, but i seem to remember Hijackthis was an important part of the process, plus some kind of change made to the PC to stop programs from functioning, allowing the malware to be removed via Hojickthis.
As you can see, by the language used, i am as stated an amateur, and would love any help you could give me on this. Thanks,