Hello,

Since Sunday, my computer has suddenly become very slow. When I try to start up Firefox, it now takes around 2 minutes, while before Sunday it would start up in a couple of seconds.
Everything has just become very slow.

I don't think I'm infected because I've ran SUPERAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, Hitman Pro 3.5.0, NOD32 and an online virus scanner. Hitman Pro 3.5.0 found one Trojan, and got rid of it.
Sometimes it takes long to load everything and the icons on my desktop just keep flashing as if it keep loading it. Explorer.exe is also on top with processes taking CPU, and after that comes System Idle processes.
Hopefully someone can help me because it's really annoying.

Thanks in advance.

Wize, I am very familiar with all those excellent products except Hitman Pro. From what I have read it loads and installs a number of programs onto your computer. That may be your issue right there because your computer is still acting like it is infected.

Uninstall Hitman Pro and anything else it came packaged with it, run those other programs and tell us the results.

Route44, thank you. Now it's almost back to normal again.
Never through having an anti-spyware program would still slow down a computer after removing a trojan.
Thanks alot for helping me, again.

You are most welcome. Many so-called reputable antimalware/spyware programs that are packaged as legit are anything but. They will actually load more stuff on your system and a dead give away is when they say they detected an infection, do a scan now, here is what we found, now to have us remove it dowwnload our $ version.

Your other security measures are very good. What firewall are you using?

I honestly don't know what firewall I have, probably just the windows firewall.
Where can I check it?

Go here... start | control panel | security center

Usually, if you have a firewall installed and turned on, an icon will appear in the box at the lower right corner of your screen, near the Time and your connection icons etc. You can click here as well, to see what these icons represent.

I would recommend one of the firewalls mentioned in the 8 steps. I use Comodo.
Others prefer one of the paid security suites.
Route44 will offer you his preferences too!

Thanks,
Looks like I just have Windows Firewall. You use Comodo? I'll try that one.

Yes, by all means disable the XP firewall (very poor protection) and go with either Comodo or Online Armor. Comodo is free and OA has a free version (as well as a $). Both have very active and helpful communities.

Do you have a router?

Yes, I have a router. Sitecom Wireless Router 300N X3 WL-342.

I had to look up Hitman Pro as I wasn't familiar with it. It appears to use third party programs but doesn't install them- this is cloud computing. (I didn't know that- I copied it!) I think i would be reluctant to have one program oversee so may security programs. It seems to me that it would be difficult NOT to have conflicts!

I tend to be a stand-alone person rather than suites anyway. But scanning with 9 tools in one security program has got to slow things down! And Wize, you already had a conflict out of the gate because you ran Hitman and Nod32!

Hitman Pro 3.5 (besides the name has nothing to do with Hitman Pro version 2) performs a behavioral scan to find malicious files and submits suspicious files to a so called scan cloud for confirmation. This scan cloud is essentially a dozen of servers, each running a virus scanner (much like VirusTotal but with MUCH faster response; ~1 second response time per upload).

Since the scanners are not running on your computer it will not conflict with your existing installed suite. You should use Hitman Pro 3.5 as a second opinion scanner to see if your suite has missed a threat.

Hitman Pro 3.5 can also work without internet connection (see EWS) and even runs in Safe Mode and from an USB stick.

Erik, Hitman Pro v2.6> This is an old version of this software. You can also download v3.5.0.59 (latest stable version) or v3.5.0.50 RC3 (latest beta version).

This will catch you up: http://www.techspot.com/downloads/1278-hitman-pro.html

I know Hitman Pro 2.6 is really old.

The article you are referring to has descriptions from the old Hitman Pro. Hitman Pro version 3 is an entire different product compared to version 2 (as you know). Perhaps someone could update the information so it reflects the version 3 product ...

FYI, Hitman Pro 3.5.1 build 65 was released today.

I seem to have the same exact issue that Wize had. I have run Malwarebytes, Avast Antivirus, Spybot, CCleaner and Ad-Aware and it hasn't made a difference in the speed of my computer. Can someone help me? What additional info do you need from me?

You could give Hitman Pro 3.5 a try. You can download it from SurfRight's website hitmanpro.com