Browsers failing to start - requies reboot - and other issues

For the last 2 weeks at some point after rebooting [like several hours] -- browsers - Firefox and Chrome fail to display - additional starts create a new instance in task manager - have to reboot to get them working. This happens every few days.

ran CCcleaner to clear cache - does not help

Also get sometimes --- cannot enter text into "search programs and files" - have to close explorer.exe and restart it

Also a couple of times - starting a program .exe will start it but it wont actually run - have to reboot - happens with many different .exe

It sounds like you picked up a rogue program somewhere which is slowing your system way down.

Run Task Manager (hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, and choose Task Manager from the menu). Sort on the CPU column. Is something running at or near 100%? If so, then you likely picked up a Cryptocurrency mining virus -- someone is using your computer to do Bitcoin mining. This type of malware will use every bit of CPU resources that it can, in order to mine as much Bitcoin as possible. Unfortunately, your computer is basically unusable while this is going on.

Here is some helpful information about Cryptocurrency mining viruses: https://www.csoonline.com/article/32...it.html?page=2
https://antivirus.comodo.com/blog/co...n-miner-virus/

If nothing is running anywhere near 100% in Task Manager, then you may have a misbehaving service which is slowing everything down. The easiest way to figure that one out is to go into MSCONFIG, disable all non-Microsoft services, then reboot to see if that solved the problem. You then re-enable one service at a time, rebooting after each re-enable, to see if the problem returns. If it returns, then whatever you just re-enabled is the culprit. Keep re-enabling one at a time, to see if there are other culprits. Keep the culprits disabled in MSCONFIG, and you will have your computer back.

If disabling the non-Microsoft services didn't fix things, then be sure to re-enable them -- none of them was the problem.

If things are so slow that you can't get into MSCONFIG, reboot the computer into Start Mode. You should be able to get into MSCONFIG while in Start Mode. Then when you disable all of the non-Microsoft services, reboot into Normal Mode.

I was away from computer for several hours - when got back I had the browser problem.

Process explorer showed nc.exe at 99% [thats a very old utility from 1996 I use a lot - Norton Commander]

Cancelled it and browser came back.

Grabbed a backup copy from April - that''s way before I started having problems - binary compare shows them identical.

Not sure what I do next

Forgot a crucial thing - 3 days ago malwarebytes found NC.EXE as -----


Malwarebytes
Free Antivirus Replacement & Anti-Malware Tool | Malwarebytes

-Log Details-
Protection Event Date: 7/23/18
Protection Event Time: 1:07 PM

-Software Information-
Version: 3.5.1.2522
Components Version: 1.0.391
Update Package Version: 1.0.6025
License: Premium

-System Information-
OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1
CPU: x64
File System: NTFS
User: System

-Ransomware Details-
File: 1
Malware.Ransom.Agent.Generic, C:\Program Files (x86)\Norton Commander\NC.EXE, No Action By User, [0], [392685],0.0.0