Something just hit me... I'm a bit confused about my HOSTS file. I'm wondering whether I was looking at the right thing.
@Suppressed Sorry so late replying... got on the phne with my kid, and then went to finally make some dinner....
HOSTS is in %windir%\sytem32\drivers\etc\ And it is named HOSTS with no .ext. It is hidden/protected/system, so you have to turn off hidden/protected files to even see it.
see here:
https://www.petri.com/edit-hosts-file-windows-7And your AV may be protecting it too - you may need to go into it's options and turn off hosts file protection.
Or use this dohickey:
http://www.abelhadigital.com/hostsman/Get the portable one (no installer) Unpack to a temp directory on your desktop (or whatever) and run it... no install, delete when you want.
RTFM
I just created another user and it couldn't log in.
So...since I've done all kinds of antivirus steps, is the best step now to try to back up or get a new SSD and try to reinstall?
You might try disabling AV, disabling firewall and see...
You might go back and run EEK as I first recommended.
and if there is in fact a redirect in hosts...
But I can understand that this is becoming laborious. May be time to nuke and pave. That would be your decision.
If you are there, I would recommend the new SSD system drive - They are quite cheap anymore, and if you are like most of us, a 256g will suit you fine for a system drive...
If your machine is new enough to matter, the performance difference makes it a no-brainer.
And that way, when you are comfortable with the idea that all your data is moved over alright, rub the old drive off and use it for backup and storage.
ALL my system drives are SSD, and the only other thing I would recommend in that case is to redirect your pics and movies into something like /Media/pictures and /Media/Movies on the rearward drive to keep all that fat stuff off your system drive... Likewise your torrent base directory and etc... you know the drill.