So I can't start my virtual machines for VMware:

Nov 18 09:52:25.157: vcpu-0| [msg.vnet.getLastMessage] VMnet0: The system cannot find the file specified
Nov 18 09:52:25.157: vcpu-0| [msg.device.startdisconnected] Virtual device Ethernet0 will start disconnected.

But this time I know what has to be going on. Recently I upgraded my 6.5 installation and I turned my machine off while I was out of town. And of course when I came back, the keyboard did not work (error 39?). It turned out that VMware installs a shim on top of the keyboard driver and I think the uninstall hosed me. I followed the directions at code 39 keyboard win XP. Let me tell you, entering text into regedit32 with a dead keyboard is a challenge. But the entry by Bas13 does walk you through it.

I also deleted the network configurations.

So I searched for the error messages today and mostly turned up Linux related questions.

I decided to reinstall the latest VMware upgrade and when I was prompted, I selected Repair as an option. That fixed the issue for me.

My mother in law's computer is heavily infected. Why, why not?

I've been using BleepingComputer to figure out how to clean it up.

As it wouldn't boot as far as I was concerned, I took out the hard drive and put in a USB enclosure. I then attached it to a laptop I was willing to reformat if necessary. I then ran a virus scanner and Spybot - Search and Destroy on it. When I thought it was clean enough, I got the PC to boot again.

And now I'm going through online tools to scan it again and again. I'll get each tool to report nothing and start a new tool up. Right now I'm working down the list on Preparation Guide For Use Before Posting A Hijackthis Log, Instructions for receiving help in cleaning your computer and I'm doing Ad-Aware 2008 Free. And it is half done with 528 infections found. ;<.

So it finally finishes all of the way. A hint is to not start a browser up before running Ad-Aware. It will find offenses in that case.