Done, done and done and it eludes HJT. Its effects show up, but they change on each boot so it's not readily evident that the same source is responsible for everything.

I did follow a tip from the MajorGeeks forum, which said this thing hides inside routers and to reset the router. I went one step better and reinstalled the router firmware and the thing was disabled enough for me to get a handle on cleaning it out. More details as I find it all.