first serious infection

The problems you are having appear to be problems with Windows itself. You will likely need to do a repair of Windows or a reinstall. Both of these will require your Windows CD. And both of these are really topics for the Software Forum since you are not having malware problems but rather problems with a broken Windows installation. You may have many other problems other than just the help service not running.

Not sure if the below link will help get the help service running again but it may be worth a try:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2007/03/20/help-and-support-service-missing-after-installing-windows-2003-service-pack-2.aspx


Also another possiblity is the below:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555329

 

You're welcome.

Since you are not having malware problems, it is time to do our final steps. I am not going to have you toggle System Restore since it may still be something you will need to use to fix your PC if fixing without a reinstall is possible.

1. We recommend you keep SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for scanning/removal of malware. Unless you purchase them, they provide no protection. They do not use any significant amount of resources ( except a little disk space ) until you run a scan.
2. If we had you use ComboFix, uninstall ComboFix (This uninstall will only work as written if you installed ComboFix on your Desktop like we requested.)
   • Click START then RUN and enter the below into the run box and then click OK. Note the quotes are required
   • "%userprofile%\Desktop\combofix" /uninstall
     • Notes: The space between the combofix" and the /uninstall, it must be there.
     • This will uninstall ComboFix and also reset hidden files and folders settings back to Windows defaults.
3. Go back to step 6 oof the READ ME and renable your Disk Emulation software with Defogger if you had disabled it.
4. Any other miscellaneous tools we may have had you install or download can be uninstalled and deleted.
5. If we had you download any registry patches like fixme.reg or fixWLK.reg (or any others), you can delete these files now.
6. If running Vista, it is time to make sure you have reenabled UAC by double clicking on the C:\MGtools\enableUAC.reg file and allowing it to be added to the registry.
7. Go to add/remove programs and uninstall HijackThis.
8. Goto the C:\MGtools folder and find the MGclean.bat file. Double click on this file to run this cleanup program that will remove files and folders
   related to MGtools and some other items from our cleaning procedures.
10. After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:
    • How to Protect yourself from malware!

 

Run FixACLS as I instructed in message # 31 and then see if you can get the uninstall of ComboFix to work.

 

Right click on the ComboFix.exe icon and select Properties. Then select the Security tab. Then click the Edit button. Now in the next form, select your user account name. Then what does it show for check marks in the Allow and Deny columns?

 

Excellent. Surf safely.