AV Failing+learn why my autorun disable failed

FIRST:Blessings to the MAJOR GEEKS/forum contributors)!am a senior who must use Ebay : ( :heart
ALL malware I get comes from Ebay people!Usually fraudulent buyers.Get hit with everything.YOUR FORUMS and HELP (THANK YOU CHASLANG in 11/09)make me feel pretty good I can stay safe.The 'greyknight17/TomCoyote)gets a BIG KUDOS from me also.After 7 years,HJT got corrupted (NOT old versions,but newer CNET!I learned my lesson-all is ok with 1.9versions).I learned ADS,key loggers,back door,coding-much MORE FROM all OF YOU.
Recently(thank you ebay scammer)got hit with several AutoRun B worms.Malwarebytes finds.They keep rebooting.Finally did an auto run disable.Read all forums.Did great until I ran the reg.First,computer crashed!it restarted,said:<windows root>...then I saw (it flickered on very quickly)something that said must re-install HAL.Then it continued on to boot normal to my start page.I read one of the forums.He said he was OK only in safe mode.So,I re-started in F8 Admin.Redid it.Great!I want to learn so I finally figured why the "normal'start up failed.It seems everything I have opens in IE (I have IE6/XP2-do not want IE8 or XP3-way too many problems,esp with malware):IE opened the reg key in notepad! I redid with ANSI and it was fine.My problem:what AV to use?Norton is there-LOUSY.I used AVG-it crashed.Why?Norton!I used the Norton removal tool and the link in the forum to remove.I found about 100 files STILL in there when I ran search in F8Admin.Cannot remove.I passed all PCFlank tests etc.Embarrased to say-BUT-need freebie until I can buy (Malwarebytes and Superantispyware my 2 choices).What to do about Norton?It does zippo in catching.BLESSINGS TO ALL!..Grandma:wave:dood