Just as I come from a reboot Windows Defender pops open. That's funny, “MSASCui -silent” is set in the start options. But whenever I ran the Quick Scan, it found an iteration of Adware:W32/OpenCandy.
Running a full scan
This came bundled with something you recently installed:
Encyclopedia entry: Adware:Win32/OpenCandy - Learn more about malware - Microsoft Malware Protection Center
Consider upgrading to MSE. It combines the function of Defender along with an active scanning AV.
MSE has detected OpenCandy on a couple programs before I installed them. It lists it as "Potentially Unwanted Software."
Microsoft Security Essentials - Free Antivirus for Windows
Also, try running Malwarebytes, be sure to check the boxes of anything it finds & quarantine it.
Malwarebytes : Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO removes malware including viruses, spyware, worms and trojans, plus it protects your computer
Now I realize what was going on with Windows Defender's unusual startup behavior. MSASCui doesn't support the "-silent" switch, so even if the rest of the operating system starts the window still pops open. This was only meant for the older Windows versions which didn't come with Windows Defender pre-installed. I went to my tools collection and ran FixWin to restore the default behavior of Windows Defender.
I ran the MRT tool and it didn't find anything. I suppose that's what it was reporting before the stupid thing locked up and I had to forcibly power down my system, because the drive activity light wasn't even flashing as well. As of this point Windows Defender is set only on the C: drive.
Windows Defender did not find any further infection from OpenCandy. In the meantime, someone needs to tell me how to run a boot trace, because in-between the time I've been scanning, I was hit with some "REGISTRY_ERROR" BSOD's and I must notify the BSOD Team about what's been taking place.
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