Well unfortunately running the Panda Software did not fix the problem...
I followed tiny's advice and grabbed a copy of
AVG Antivirus and the problem was identified right away by AVG even before the installation was complete!
For the record I was wrong and I missed the virus in the Running Processes window.
The application was mcc.exe and while AVG Antivirus could NOT fix the issue by itself, I was able to remove it by following the steps outlined
here.
Sure enough the urls I was being redirected to were listed right in the Windows Registry.
Thanks to tiny and to all who replied here and via email - you're the best!
