trojan? browser hijacker? please help

Today, the were three brand new shortcuts just sitting on my desktop there, out of the blue. All of them were about fighting malware. And all I did several hours before meeting my "new friends", was installing a trial of widely known (and trusted ) defragmentation tool downloaded from the vendor's site.
I was stunned by the lack of interest of my NOD32. It was just sitting in its corner twiddling its thumbs. I made it perform an In-depth analysis, but it reported that everything was all right, except the fact that there was an error "while scanning active boot sector of the 1. physical disk". Right!
At that point my SUPERAntiSpyware (free) started telling me for more than 50 times that my IE homepage is about to change, and every time my answer was "block". And I don't even use IE - ever! After a complete scan, my SAS told me there were 13 infection of 3 different trojans, many of which were hidden in the registry. It performed deletion, and a reboot. Yet, there were still those unidentified (malware) pop ups telling me that my computer is infected with Worm.Win32.NetSky and it offers its protection. (oh, how thoughtful! ) I also got another "Windows Security Alert" about my computer being attacked by a spyware and that I should follow the link where I could download a tool for my total protection. (I don't know whether I'm allowed to provide the link on this forum, so I'm not going to).
I'm doing another scanning with my SAS, and up till now, it's found 3 DesktopHijacker.AboutYourPrivacy, 1 Browser Hijacker and 1 Trojan.Net-MSV/VPS.
Do you have any advice what I should do next? Which of the additional programs should I use to eradicate these pests? And in which way should I punish my stricken dumb NOD32 ?
Thanks
usnuli

 

Did you update NOD32 and perform an ondemand scan yet?

 

Yes, I did that the first time I noticed those three shady icons on my desktop. The virus signature database version was (and still is) 2793 (20080115).
I'm performing an ondemand scan in the safe mode at the moment. 98% and still nothing.

 

We can run a custom diagnostic on your system if you want to submit a support request here:
http://www.superantispyware.com/support.html

 

Thank you for the offer. It would've been great if I had seen it earlier! The thing is I've already reinstalled Windows and rebuilt my system from scratch - not such a bid deal after all.
SUPERAntiSpyware is definitely a keeper! It’s a great product and I’ve reinforced it with OA (finally, I’ve seen the light concerning HIPS ). On the other hand, NOD32 has been ditched. I’ve switched to another equally praised AV. I miss the low memory footprint of NOD32, but I don’t see a point in enjoying a great performance of AV if the very AV is actually useless. It’s a great shame after all because I’ve used it for almost 3 years.
Once again, thank you for the offer. You've got a wonderful product there!
Cheers
usnuli