Malware issue: Simple but persists even after scans.

Please note that I'm unsure if it's the name of the malware, but after Googling the signs, the closest I had was smartlink dot name (if I write out the dot it would create a link, hence the 'dot' from here on), and also it showed on the search bar before changing/redirecting to something else, mostly ads,

I found out the problem occurs every time I restart my laptop; a few seconds after the reboot (presumably waiting for the internet to connect, I use a dongle) a CMD prompt screen would pop up for a split second, then Firefox opens by itself, with a tab showing a loading redirect into smartlink dot name/en/index.html or smartlink dot name/trafficback.html , depending on how fast I am on stopping the loading. I found these two from history tab.

In terms of severity, so far I've seen none. No other pop ups, perhaps due to an ad blocker on Firefox. I don't have a blocker for Opera and so far I haven't seen any pop ups.

I have never got a Malware again since early 2000, but in my moment of ignorance I used a USB stick that I've used in a net cafe prior to this problem occur. Either that or Windows Update brought it along with it, since it was the update few hours ago that was the impetus of the first restart where I saw the problem occurred, but I doubt it.

In the attempt to remove the Malware, after some Google results and this subreddit's wiki, I tried;

Avast. I tried the free version, and it yielded some severe results and I deleted the offending problems. I restarted and still the problem was there. Uninstalled, and reverted back to Windows Defender, did quick scan and found nothing.

HitmanPro. Found nothing but a false positive of Cheat Engine I've used for years.

RKill. Did it whole process for some minutes and text log found nothing.

AdwCleaner. Cleansed some PUP, nothing else was major. After this I restarted and problem persisted.

I tried going to Safe Mode, ran RKill (scanned for 55 seconds) and HitmanPro, restarted to normal more and problem is still there.

Tried downloading Malwarebytes but it kept stopping on 5% on installation.

I'm not sure on what else to do. Was going to try Restore to previous load but it was locked, and after unlocking I found out there was no past state I could restore to. If anyone can help I would be grateful.