Hi Dave,
Sorry this took so long. I have completed the steps you suggested and I believe that I am through with the malware problem. I still have to reinstall the paid-for AVG and activate its firewall (though that evidently didn't help me in the first place?)
I have had several instances where the laptop has not shut down correctly. I select start\turn off computer\turn off and I get the screen that says that windows is shutting down but then it stalls there. I wait for 5 or 10 minutes and then just power off the machine. It doesn't always happen but I'd say about every third or fourth time so far.
Thanks for your help.
Mike
