I was so right. I DID have a virus. Not only did I have *a* virus, I had 11 of the little buggers. I had to break down and go purchase an actual anti-virus program this morning because the PC situation had gotten way out of hand, and my computer's efficiency was deteriorating by the minute.
So here is what happened. I bought my computer in November. I had a 3 month Norton Anti-Virus trial subscription, and it worked great, never had a problem. Well, I let it lapse because I was too poor and lacked the credit card needed in order to renew the subscription. I figured it was no big deal, I would just be really careful and I wouldn't have a problem. Boy was I stupid. My computer has been acting kind of funny lately, being really slow and not doing everything it is supposed to. It was also taking an insanely long time to reboot. The problem didn't really start being in my face and unavoidable until day before yesterday. Last night was when I was about to explode with frustration. I couldn't get on any websites, it kept freezing up and it was running super duper slow. It was also "thinking" non-stop, if you know what I mean. So I tried a few things, nothing worked. Chunk sent me a spyware removal program, and it had found a ton of spyware on my pc, but didn't fix the issues at hand. Today I decided to just go buy Norton Antivirus from Wal-mart. Of course, because of the worm threat over the weekend, it was all sold out. I bought McAfee instead. When I got home Chunk's brother helped me out a LOT. The things he helped me with made it so my PC would stay on and work OK enough to be able to install my anti virus and all that good stuff, so thanks to Robert and Chunk for all of their help! I ran McAfee and it ran for over 2 hours. When all was said and done, it had removed ELEVEN viruses from my system, and a boat load of spyware, even though I had *just* ran the spysweeper the night before! I started realizing how careless my decision to leave my computer unprotected was. This is the most valuable piece of my personal property, and I should be taking care of it. I assure you, after this fiasco, I will never be so stupid again!!!!