Windows 10: Not BSOD, but lots of issues - OS corrupt or virus (or both)?

Thanks - will do.

Here is the SuperAntiSpyware finish shot and log. I didn't see any viruses but shocking number of minor issues. Off to do Adw after I skip Kaspersky

 

And Adw was quick. Attached.

 

Same issue I had before with Malwarebytes - can't connect to service once installed. Lots of hits on that error, so suspect I am not alone. Moving on to Zemana.

 

Zemana done (it also found lots of adware but also a virus it appears). I think that finishes the scans. Next (probably tomorrow) I will start working the repair stuff.

 

There is a lot of malware on the computer.
Not one scan so far has been clean.
If more scans are run it is highly likely that more malware will be found.
It is highly recommended that you save files to a drive and then scan the drive and clean install the computers drive.
Kaspersky will do you a lot more good than harm as so many antivirus scanners have been at one time or other implicated in hijacking.
Notice Avast in this link is first on the list for the most highly recommended antivirus:
The Best Free Antivirus Protection of 2017 | PCMag.com
Notice the hijacking for 6 of the major antivirus companies: Avast, Trend Micro, Mcafee, Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, and Norton.
Anti virus software could be HACKING your computer, and this is why | Tech | Life & Style | Express.co.uk
Papanee did not provide a reference to the comments made in post 13.
What is the probability of harm from using any of the antivirus software?
What is the probability of benefit from using any of the antivirus software?
Does anyone know or have a guess?
On balance if it were my computer I would do as much as possible to eradicate the malware.
Either clean install or run anything and everything until there are many scans that display no malware.

AV-Comparatives Real-World Protection Test - AV-Comparatives
https://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-c...t_2017a_en.pdf
10 Reasons Why Your Traditional Antivirus Can’t Detect Second Generation Malware [Infographic] - Heimdal Security Blog

 

zbook - thanks, starting to accept I will need to reinstall. Thanks for the words on AV software. I thought Defender was protecting me (obviously not!). I took Norton off as I was told by several tech folks more than Defender was just slowing my computer down. Now I am not so sure. Do you have several scanners or just run one in the background? Trying to avoid this nightmare in he future. Thankfully, I on-line backed up (if I lost the entire computer) but a reinstall is still a pain.

 

The windows defender comes with the windows 10 operating system and automatically updates. There may be an options to check for Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUP's) but I had not looked for the option. Instead I use malwarebytes. The two software I found useful on multiple computers.
Most of the malware gets blocked by the software.
The vulnerabilities come from the end user allowing downloads that have the PUP's or malware.
How to remove Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) from Windows

If you have one malware detected and we used multiple anti-malware programs and they came back without any findings we would have some sense that we could comfortably assume that the malware was eradicated. There is no perfect result.

All malware scans will have false negatives (missing malware), false positives (finding malware when in reality there was none), true negatives (finding no malware that is no malware) and true positives (finding malware when there is malware). The combination of these results produces the accuracy.

There is user opinions, expert reviews, independent testing, and complete antivirus assessment as depicted in this link:
How to Find the Best Antivirus for 2017, the Ultimate Guide - Heimdal Security Blog

So you will untimately rely on one or more of the above methods in deciding which software to use.

Again so much depends on the end user as the software can easily be overridden and malware downloaded.

Regarding the computer's current environment.
There is likely more malware on the computer.
Malware can produce hangs, bsod, problems with audio and video, and even worse things like problems with privacy and financial problems such as ransomware.
So on balance whatever problems you have now the uncertainty of what has already happened is very concerning. Was there any keystroke logging by the malware? Were any user ID's or passwords compromised? These types of questions unfortunately are possible realities. Who know's what the percentages are?

If you want to run more malware programs on the current computer that can be done. When will it be enough? What will happen to the operating system and registry from the anti-malware programs and from the malware?

There are already windows operating system software problems that will need to be fixed.
The hardware has not yet been checked.

So on balance you need to decide whether to start fresh and reinstall files or run anti-malware programs to attempt to remove any malware and wonder whether you have made a complete or incomplete eradication of the malware.