Extreme lagging, unable to open programs, malware issue?

I began experiencing problems with my computer yesterday. It's a custom build from 2011 that has run flawlessly until yesterday. It suddenly became extremely laggy, some programs won't open, some won't close, Windows error messages I've seen before, circular spinning loading icon when trying to do just about anything, etc.

I've completed this process, and didn't find anything. Bitdefender found a few temp files that I deleted, but as far as I can tell from googling were false positives. I tried an Avira scan but after running for 9 hours overnight it was stuck at less than 2% and wasn't moving.

I don't even know where to begin. Any ideas?

Hello and welcome:

There are many causes for a "slow" computer -- hardware, software, malware, etc.

You might want to try some of the suggestions here (it is an older tutorial, but most of the suggestions are still valid) or here.

>>I would be very wary of any sort of 3rd-party registry "optimizer" or "tweaker" or "cleaner", especially without providing a bit more data about your system. Such programs often cause more harm than good.

Perhaps if you could please download, run and post both logs (FRST.txt and Addition.txt) from FRST, we could know a bit more in order to better assist you. If you are on 64-bit Win7, you will need the 64-bit version of FRST. You may need to temporarily pause your real-time AV in order for it to run. Be sure to re-enable your AV after running the tool.

Thanks,
MM

Thanks, MoxieMomma.

I suspect the issues are not hardware related since the issues appeared instantly, and I didn't install any software immediately prior to experiencing the issues. This install of Win7 is over five years old, so I could probably use a fresh install, which I plan to do on an SSD soon, but it's not mandatory - my system was running like new until yesterday.

I don't use optimizers or tweakers. I use ccleaner, but stopped using the registry cleaner a while back once I realized I shouldn't be using it.

Logs are attached.

Hi:

Did you try any of the suggestions in the tutorials for which I provided the links in my previous reply?

I'd like to be able to help you further.
However, your logs show evidence of the system's use to actively pirate licensed Microsoft software.
As this forum has a zero-tolerance policy about piracy (Item #4 in the Forum Rules), I cannot assist you further at this time.
I will defer to the forum mod team and Admins for additional advice.
Perhaps if you replace your pirated software with properly licensed software, someone can provide additional help.

Thank you for your understanding.

MM