Farbar recovery scan tool

1. start typing disk cleanup into search then click on the top result. Select your C drive if you're given a choice. Check the boxes for what you want removed, click OK

Same as above, but right click on disk cleanup and run as administrator.

Press the Windows key + R to bring up the run box. Enter %temp% press OK. Select everything then right click > Delete

note: some things will not delete if they are in use

2. Unless you are downloading from warez sites, that is, sites that offer payed software for free using keygens, cracks etc

or getting payed software through torrents

or downloading game hacks and mods from non-reputable sites

or opening suspicious attachments in emails

basically any high risk browsing behaviour

• then your chances of getting infected are close to zero.

I'm not seeing anything abnormal with CPU. I think it's likely that you are misinterpreting the graph when on the performance tab. The bottom of the graph is 0 % and the top is 100%. For 100 % CPU utilization, the blue line would be a straight line across the top of the graph.

It could be that one of the RAM sticks has come loose and needs to be reseated. If that's a task you'd want to tackle, the video linked below gives an idea of what is involved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-kzlPu-wCc 

This shows what's involved in cleaning then reinstalling the RAM.

https://computerinfobits.com/how-to-clean-ram-contacts/

Hi, the disk is fine, the memory could possibly be high. Open Task Manager, switch to the Performance tab and select Memory. Post a screenshot.

Switch to the Processes tab, and click at the top of the Memory column so it's sorted high to low - make sure it's scrolled to the top so I can see the highest memory consumption. Post a screenshot.

No, that will be embedded in the BIOS or UEFI firmware.

It's not that they are difficult to remove, it's more that antiviruses aren't that great at detecting them until well after the infection. Lately there's a lot of script based malware, that is storing the payload in the registry. There will be a scheduled task that executes a script, that then reads the payload from the registry into memory then executes it.

All these infections are easily removed by someone with knowledge of how they work. Unfortunately, antiviruses seem to be one step behind.

>>Just don't make yourself a high risk target, and backup everything that's valuable to you.

Stay well informed if these things interest you. Just keep them in perspective so you don't scare yourself to death.

Most of them rely on the user having an unpatched exploitable app installed and the attachment gets opened by that exploitable app.

Generally, the exploit payload will download and execute malware.

Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat are common targets. If you're fully updated with all your apps, then the exploit wouldn't work.

Regarding Fileless malware - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/intelligence/fileless-threats?view=o365-worldwide

Technically, files anywhere can be a virus or malware, so yes, files in a temp folder can be malware.

CPU and CPU utilization are the same thing.

>>Also, why is my CPU utilization being high when there are no apps running?

Even though you're not running any apps, there's still 219 processes running on your system. My system shows around 210 processes. There are many operating system related tasks, and Windows Defender tasks, that are triggered when the system is "idle". To see what is happening when those spikes in the graph occur, switch to the Processes tab in TM and sort the CPU column from high to low.

That's just to show that the top of the graph corresponds to 100 % CPU utilization.

There's no malware present. Post a screenshot showing the 100% CPU utilization.

Also, select the processes tab in Task Manager, click in the CPU header to sort from high to low. Post a screenshot of that.

Adding to _AW_.

The Command Prompt windows may be a result of legit scheduled tasks running at login. You can see the list of scheduled tasks that recently ran on your computer using one of the methods stated in this article.

For instance, note down the time the Command windows opened. then, open PowerShell admin and run:

Get-ScheduledTask | Get-ScheduledTaskInfo | select TaskName, TaskPath, LastRunTime | out-gridview

Reverse-sort the list by "Last Run time" and match the entries that correspond with the timestamp of your Command window processes.

Hi Sofia, the logs show that there's nothing at all to be concerned about. I can't possibly tell you with any certainty what the command prompt windows were. My best guess would be updates related to Edge, OneDrive or Chrome.

I've no idea why a FRST log would be incomplete. I guess it's some sort of malfunction, but as it's not readily reproducible, it's not possible to give any further explanation.

Hi Sofia, the FRST log is only half complete, but what I could see of both logs, there is no sign of malware. In fact, there's very little running on the computer other than the bare essentials.