I have a virus or something. When I go to any search engine and search for anything, a bogus search results page comes up. All the links go to spam pages, i.e. if I search for "bad movies" I'll get a search result that says "bad movies" but when I click on it, I'll be taken to a popup ad for "Best Prices for 2008 BMWs" or other such nonsense.
Also, more disturbingly, this virus has blocked my access to any websites for antivirus or anti-spyware software. I can't update my spyware removers or antivirus programs, nor can I access any websites to download any such programs. For example, if I try to go to
www.lavasoft.com, I'll either be instantly redirected to a spam page or I'll get "page cannot be displayed".
What can I do? Am I just going to have to format and reinstall?