Most efficient way to remove the XP Home Security Malware from a PC

My in-laws Win XP PC became infected with malware about a week ago. It was the XP Home Security malware that pops up windows warning you about being infected and appears to scan real files on your PC that it says are infected. In addition the browsers on the machine were hijacked such that you could get to Google OK but when you clicked on any other link you would be redirected to another seemingly random sites. It was a mess...

Over the past week I've put in at least 11 hours work on the problem and run up 50 miles of driving back and forth to their house. I still don't have a complete fix... I'm going to post a few insights here over the next few days but I wanted to start out with my advice if you have the same problem.

1: Unplug the PC's network cable
2: Reboot the machine and hold down the F8 key in oder to see the boot options menu
3: Select Safe Mode, or Safe Mode with Networking
4: Pull off your user files onto a USB flash drive or disk drive
5: Turn the machine off
6: Go out and buy a Mac

I'm not trying to be funny (even though it is April 1st) - this is really the most effective way of dealing with this problem.

The time and frustration involved in sorting out a mess like this is simply not worth it.

Cut your losses, go buy a nice new Mac - you'll love it and you won't that these problems