Startup Inefficiency and/or Possible Malware

[Kamchak]

I am not very well versed in computers, but I follow instructions well. I built my current PC, but I'm pretty sure it's working more because of luck than any technical proficiency on my part. I am currently concerned that my system is in some way infected, but it could be that I just need to clean it up. Following is what occurred to make me wary.

I came out this morning to my PC, and I tried to open Firefox, and it would only open in Safe Mode or Reset. Then, my desktop locked up, and AVG notified me of an attempted intrusion by "Adware Generic_r.IT". AVG said it Secured/Removed the problem, but I still had to reboot to get everything working again.

Once my desktop was up, and I had internet access again, I looked for some info which led me to this site. I don't know what's most relevant at this point, or what diagnostics to run to even know there is a problem, but I looked into a few things. I noticed that I have 20 items in my StartUp tab, when I'm only running firefox there are 68 processes running (I clicked the 'Processes from All Users' tab), and there are 172 Services listed under the Services Tab.

Will someone please help me out on what to do next, or if I'm just getting jumpy over nothing?

 

[ascomputers]

welcome to the forums kamchak,

have you installed any programs recently?

can you hit control / alt / delete and check your performance tab. is your CPU and RAM maxed out?

 

[Kamchak]

Thank you! Glad to be here!

I have not installed any programs for about 5 weeks.

My performance tab shows neither CPU or RAM maxed out. RAM shows holding steady 2.47/16GB being used. CPU only shows intermittent spikes, usually less than 75%.

 

[ascomputers]

might be worth running a virus scan and malwarebytes (free) for your own piece of mind but other than that uninstalling and reinstalling firefox may resolve your issues.

also can you check that your windows update hasn't got any updates that need running. if they have run them in the firs instance.

 

[Kamchak]

I am up to date with Windows Update. I will run an AVG full system scan, and download and run malwarebytes, and tell you how it goes.

I do appreciate your help. Thank you.