I hope I've done it OK
Yes, you did. :)You will need to close/quit all open programs and disconnect from the Internet for some of the following, so you should print out these instructions or save them into a text file with Notepad.
1. Open your Add/Remove Programs control panel and uninstall the "Spyware & Adware Removal" product, as it is definitely not a recommended program. It appears on the list of Rogue/Suspect products with the following explanation:
"uses flawed, inadequate detection scheme"
Before buying/downloading/installing any purported "antispyware" program, you should definitely consult the Rogue/Suspect list.
2. Your log indicates that you have two antivirus programs (Panda and F-Secure) running simultaneously. This is not advised, as having multiple antivirus programs installed can cause conflicts. Note that this is not the case with antispyware programs; they can coexist happily. It's up to you which program you keep, but you should uninstall one of them. Let us know which product you decided to keep.
3. Click on the "Run..." option under your Start menu, type "CMD" (omit the quotes) in the resulting "Open:" window, and hit OK. This will open a DOS window.
* At the DOS prompt, type the following two commands one at a time, hitting the Enter key after each:
sc stop rpcapd
sc delete rpcapd
* Close the DOS window after the second command completes.
--- Please close/quit all open programs and disconnect from the Internet now ---
4. There are a few "loose ends" indicated in your HijackThis log, but nothing serious. After taking care of the above issues, run another scan with HijackThis. When the scan completes, put a check mark in the boxes to the left of the following entries and then click the "Fix checked" button:
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = about:blank
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.synergeticsoft.com/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://global.acer.com
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page = \blank.htm
O2 - BHO: EpsonToolBandKicker Class - {E99421FB-68DD-40F0-B4AC-B7027CAE2F1A} - C:\Program Files\EPSON\EPSON Web-To-Page\EPSON Web-To-Page.dll (file missing)
O3 - Toolbar: EPSON Web-To-Page - {EE5D279F-081B-4404-994D-C6B60AAEBA6D} - C:\Program Files\EPSON\EPSON Web-To-Page\EPSON Web-To-Page.dll (file missing)
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Alcmtr] ALCMTR.EXE
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Spyware & Adware Removal] "C:\Program Files\Spyware & Adware Removal\SAR.exe" NoHint
O23 - Service: Remote Packet Capture Protocol v.0 (experimental) (rpcapd) - Unknown owner - %ProgramFiles%\WinPcap\rpcapd.exe" -d -f "%ProgramFiles%\WinPcap\rpcapd.ini (file missing)
5. Reboot your computer. Once the computer has rebooted, run HijackThis again and post the new log it generates.
6. At this point, you should be able to set your IE homepage to whatever you like. Please let us know if you are still experiencing the homepage hijack symptom.
