ok, first almost all the toolbars in IE went black before the fix. Now everything is normally back.
As for the firewalls, I can no longer see the red balloon in the tray, so most likely it's working.
I may also mention that till the very moment, IE becomes unbearably sluggish the first time I run it after the reboot. Eventually it becomes "not responding" , I'd have to end the process manually and start all over again.
This has been the same for weeks, maybe months, and until now.
As for combofix, I doubt that it'd been corrupted during download because I don't find a reason for the "freeze" it causes whenever run. Shall I redownload it? Is it crucial to use it with my infection? Could the computer ever get 100% clean once more without running it?
finally a big thank you