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I have removed this malware 4 times in the last two weeks. Infected machines may have a variety of other problems, including inability to run Windows update, missing files, and inability to run any programs at all.
In addition to SAS and Malwarebytes, run Rkill, which “…is a program that was developed at BleepingComputer.com that attempts to terminate known malware processes so that your normal security software can then run and clean your computer of infections. When RKill runs it will kill malware processes and then import a Registry file that removes incorrect file associations and fixes policies that stop us from using certain tools. When finished it will display a log file that shows the processes that were terminated while the program was running.”
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/rkillWhen I get such a machine I also look at Windows update, defrag and chkdsk and the start up processes as they are invariably neglected.
It’s way past time someone found these clowns and jailed them. If I have run into it 4 times in two weeks, there must be many thousands of machines being infected every day. For that matter, why do we have to rely on the goodness of the anti-malware community to remove these infections? MS should be providing solutions and better guidance to users, who shouldn’t have to suffer these malicious and expensive problems just because they get on line and get tricked by these very clever scammers.

I’m surprised you didn’t mention Picasa Web Gallery, the only such service I use.
They don’t try to sell anything, you 2 GB free, 20GB is only $5.00/year, and coordinates with Google Docs.
The Picasa tools offer substantial editing ability and uploading is a one-click process.

This thread is very interesting to me as I have been roped into malware removal as a consequence of being the go-to guy among my friends. At one time I cleaned these infections for free, but the average charge is now $100-$150.
I have formatted PCs in the past when an infection was particularly bad, but it’s been quite a while since I had to do that. The wealth of information online from people who have removed a particular infection often makes this easy. My favorite tools are Malwarebytes, Super Anti Spyware and TDSS.
It’s not unusual to find a proxy installed, and most infected machines have out of date AV, Adobe, Java and Windows update is off or not used. Parents who let their children use the single account on the machine or have assigned their kids to admin accounts often write checks. Parents who gamble or watch porn are frequent visitors as well.
As for “experts”, I have run into many at Tech Support Guy, and some are very, very good and devote a lot of time to this pursuit. They rely on Hijack This logs, which I have never found very useful, but they have all taken advanced courses in how to use them. I was going to take this “Expert” course, which seemed very comprehensive, but didn’t have the time to devote to it.
As for the MS removal tool, it doesn’t run properly on my Win7 x64 machine (No definition updates) so I haven’t found it helpful.
I know for a fact that people have replaced infected machines after giving up on cleaning them, and I have actually talked a couple of people into using Linux after being infected multiple times.
It would be interesting to know how much money malware has cost consumers in terms of lost productivity, frustration and out of pocket payments. It’s bound to be a big number.

The MSDN article below provides a lot of info and advice on this subject.
“Best practices for using defragmentation in Windows 7 are simple – you do not need to do anything.”
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/01/25/disk-defragmentation-background-and-engineering-the-windows-7-improvements.aspx

This MSDN article should (But won’t) put this subject to rest for all time. I’ve never understood the defrag obsession, and have only rarely seen real improvements from frequent defragging.

“Best practices for using defragmentation in Windows 7 are simple – you do not need to do anything!”
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/01/25/disk-defragmentation-background-and-engineering-the-windows-7-improvements.aspx

I’m 66, and I go back to the DOS days, which I suspect helps in dealing with Linux’ command line.
OTOH, I hardly ever need it.
My Linux experiments started with Fedora in various versions, brief experiments with Debian and SUSE and then an early version of Ubuntu.
Several people have pointed out that Windows has its share of problems and necessary tweaks and that’s true. My experience as the neighborhood go-to guy is that most home users know very little about Windows and just want to surf the web and send/receive. A smaller subset want to deal with digital photos and/or music.
Ubuntu handles all these chores easily and instinctively for those who put forth the effort, and there’s the rub. In my experience there’s a huge percentage of users who aren’t willing or able to do so. That seems to have something to do with human nature. I’m not sure if curiosity is a learned behavior, but when it comes to computers, many people don’t have any. If something doesn’t work they walk away from it or spend money to solve a problem that a few minutes of Googling would resolve.
In short, I see the problem as users, not operating systems.

MSE updates are automatic from within the app itself.
It seems to me it would be unusual to update from Windows update.

What bertie91 said. This will give you a dual boot, and you’ll be able to select a drive at boot.
There’s no problem with legality as it’s the same OS on the same computer and only one copy is being used.
The update problem will exist, but that seems every minor to me.

You could use Filezilla Server, but it would be far easier to just network the machines, or use some of the other suggestions in this thread.
Google Docs is also good.

Mpeg is a video file. You need to rip this to an MP3 or other audio format.

Maybe.
See the section on bridging here:
http://agaric.com/note/how-setup-linksys-router-verizon-fios
Verizon usually expects these routers to be returned when service is terminated, so your friend may receive an unexpected bill.

I’ve seen two onboard NICs stop working. I agree it’s unusual, but in both cases I grabbed a used one from my parts collection and solved the problem in a few minutes.

I hear this very often, and it’s always puzzled me.
Verizon FIOS uses WEP by default, and I suspect it’s for compatibility. For instance, I have a mixture of Mac, Linux, XP and Win7 computers and some older hardware, so WPA isn’t even an option.
I do not believe anyone is going to sit in my parking lot, or even in a nearby unit and spend 45 minutes or more hacking my WiFi.
I’ve looked at this hack, and it’s not for the faint of heart.
Even if such a hack occurred, what would a hacker get? I suppose the consequences could be dire in the most extreme case, but I don’t exactly have a fortune to steal, and I know there’s limited liability in such cases.
In short, while I can see the advantage of WPA for those with state secrets, terrorists and others with info worth concealing, I think this vulnerability is way over blown for most of us.

Your only sensible options are

[*]WPA2-PSK – if your laptop supports this, which it probably will
[*]WPA-PSK – if your laptop doesn’t support WPA2

The 802.1 protocols require a server to authenticate users.

WEP is so insecure that you might as well not bother, a half competent hacker with a standard laptop can crack a WEP protected network with MAC address hiding and no SSID broadcast in about 45 minutes.

This Ubuntu doc should help:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessTroubleShootingGuide