Probable virus, network and sharing center doesn't open

[lavenderinjune]

Ads opening and now I can't access the Network and Sharing Centre. So far AVs didn't find anything. Problem persists.

The system has been quite slow, with CPU going wildly up and down sometimes. But not always. I also noticed quite the delay when typing in Chrome or just the Start menu.

For a couple of days I've had weird ads opening in Chrome tabs, instead of websites I wanted to open via my bookmarks. (I clicked on the bookmark, then in the same tab an ad for some German airline loaded with a very long URL)
Then these ads started loading on other websites that I usually frequent.

Today I found I can't open the Network and Sharing Center.
At all.
Internet works fine, I'm using a Broadcom adapter which loaded just fine, it's just I can't access the Network Center, typing it in START doesn't work either.

I've run several anti-virus scans, all came up clear (apart from ESET online scanner, which found some Win32/ Opencandy application - but it was set to delete all it found)
Avast - newest version, set to download updates every hour - found nothing.
Windows Defender running. Firewall running too.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware found nothing either.

I guess I recently clicked on some "Adobe new version" Pop-up and now I'm scared that was a fake.

The Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool is still running.

I'll try that Hitman Pro next.

What else can I do?
Cheers, Inga

 

[Borg 386]

You may wish to try a Boot AV Rescue disk, this will scan your system before anything loads. The link below is to a list of boot disks:

Free Bootable AntiVirus Rescue CDs Download List

Note: The Kaspersky disk has been known to cause problems in the past with Win 7, if they have corrected this, I do not know, but you may wish to try one of the others first.

You could try to flush your DNS to see if this clears the problem with the rouge ads popping up.

How to Flush DNS

Adobe did release a update for the flash player a few days ago, however, did you get this update from the legitimate Adobe site or was it from a random page claiming you needed an update?

Anytime you go to a page that tells you something like "You need to d/l our special viewer to see this content" or similar messages, best to steer clear of that page as it most likely is a ruse to get you to d/l a file that contains malware/viruses.

Also, be knowledgeable of the software you have on your system. I've seen some pages that say "You need to install this item" or "Your software is out of date, click here to update" when I know the item in question is up to date or is present on my system.