a problem getting rid of spy ware- please help

hi there, i am only new to this site so i hope that you can help me, i have been following the step by step guide on how to delete the auto:blank pop-up from the computer. this is what happens, and it ONLY happens when i check my mail. what happens is that i log onto yahoo to check the mail and then when i enter my details in and i am forwarded to the mailbox the auto:blank kicks in, now it only happens when i go into the mail box, but no other page.

i have downloaded spyware doctor, ad-aware, hijackthis, spysweeper, spybot and auobuster, i have turned off the system back up, and before this i updated everything, i then scanned the computer with all of them in saf mode, adn deleted all the files that were threats.

i then followed the instrcutions on the http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=38772 page but i got stopped by some problems, these were : Windows Registry Editor , i didnt know what key i was sposed to back up.
however the major problem was the opening of the notepad, on the tutorial it reads ads the following: ) Now we are going to use notepad to erase the contents of the DLL file shown in the R0 & R1 lines of your HijaakThis log. To do this click Start, Run, and enter the following command "notepad c:\path\xxxxx.dll" (without the quotes) and click OK.
an that we must change the extension name as there is no generic extension, that is fine, so what i did was take the address from the hijacklist and then tried to run it, but it sed that there was no destination of that kind. OK, so i just searched for it manually, the xxxxx.dll that is, and i found it, and then i opened it with notepad, but it was empty, even the properties says that there was 0-Bytes, so at this stage i just gave up, because it ses that the steps MUST be followed.
Can someone please tell me what i am sposed to do to get rid of this problem,
thank you for any help that i may receive,
Coboy