ladiesman217,
Malware removal is tedious. If it's going to take you more than an hour, it's best to reformat. BUT if you are doing it as an exercise in learning then here is my recommendation.
1) Snag McAfee command line scanner and trend command line scanner. Both free from their sites. Place them on the c: of the target computer.
2) Boot to BART-PE
3) delete all the temp folder on the computer
4) Run the Mcafee then the trend.
5) Find the exact path of the file you were having trouble with and delete it from the command line if it's still there. I also search through the C: root and C:\Windows\System32 folder for errant files as well.
6) Reboot to safe mode with networking, see if it comes back.
6a - if it does) pull the HDD out of the laptop and install it into an enclosure scan it from another computer running Panda, McAfee, Norton, Trend, Spysweeper, Ad-aware, spybot, Spyware Doctor and Avast.
6b) If it doesn't, install and update Avast, Ad-aware, Spybot and SpySweeper scan...
7) use hijackthis to remove anything funny.

uninstall the apps above
9) Boot to regular mode, run Registry Mechanic
10) Run/update the workstations regular protection (Anti virus, antispyware and firewall), chances are what ever they were using was not updated or a poor choice for that user. I personally find Norton to be a system hog and too complicated for most users, so it does more harm than good. Something simple like Spy sweeper normally works best.
11) Apply all Windows updates and switch them to Firefox.
That assumes you have 4 hours to blow.