Oddly enough, I seem to have subjugated, if not beaten and killed, this virus.
My computer wasn't letting me open any scanning devices. More precisely, it was asking me to identify the appropriate program to open the device. So, ultimately I clicked on the 'browse' button (on the box that was asking me to identify the program) and then finding the program's location to use it. I didn't think it would work, but it seems to have done.
After scanning with one or two spyware-type programs (Spy Doctor was one of them) I copied down the names and locations of whatever problems were found - into a notebook, by hand. Then I went around simply deleting all those files, after stopping any running programs in the task manager. 
Honestly, I thought my laptop was gonna be toast. So I figured, "What the h**l have I to lose?" It seems to have worked. My hot-links are working again. I can now open any program. My AVG, Google-talk, and a variety of other icons have re-appeared and are functional. 
I am try also to delete old picture and sound files to free up space on my severely limited hard drive. Uninstalling some programs, too.