Hint: Don't bet on anything if you're not certain of the problem. I would wager that the performance problem is caused by (in order from most likely):
- Accumulation of temporary files. I cleaned 8GB of temporary browser files from a customers machine last week. That's an all time record for me. I used Glary Utilities to do the cleaning.
- Presence of c:\windows.old from a previous upgrade. Typically, this directory tree is 30 GBytes big.
- Failing hard disk drive slowing down due to error correction. Use one of the S.M.A.R.T. utilities to detect a failing hard disk. Click on the SMART tab.
- Excessive software running in the background. You don't need multiple virus and malware scanners running all the time and stepping on each other. Go down the list of installed softare and uninstall anything you don't need, don't expect to need, or haven't used more than once.
- Lack of RAM. In my never humble opinion, 6GB minimum for Win 7,
Umm... AdwCleaner Free is a stand alone program. In 8.0.5, there is a setting "automatically use the cloud database if available" which functions as an update mechanism. Both the free and paid versions are portable and do not require installation.
I've been a long time user of Malwarebytes Free, but have never bothered to try AdwCleaner. If found two "problems". ***** [ Preinstalled Software ] ***** Preinstalled.HPSupportAssistant Folder C:\HP\SUPPORT Preinstalled.SamsungSmartSwitch Folder C:\Users\JeffL\AppData\Roaming\SAMSUNG\SMART SWITCH PC The first is what I use to obtain HP specific updates for my HP desktop. The second is a copy program bundled with my former Samsung tablet. I would not consider either to be malware. I left them alone and did NOT add them to exclusions.
I then ran MalwareBytes Free 4.1.0. It took 12min 19sec to scan
257,000 items. Nothing found mostly because I had run it a few days ago and removed a few "extra" Chrome extensions.Yep, it's quick. Fixing any damage take longer.
You suggested running it monthly. Instead, I suggest you INITIALLY run it daily. If you have any bad browsing habits or visit compromised web sites, it will show up very quickly. Once you eliminate bookmarks that point directly to compromised sites, and no further malware is detected, you can then switch to weekly, and then maybe bi-weekly. Monthly scans is too long because if you install or update too many programs during that month, Windoze System Restore might remove the oldest restore points, making recovery more difficult.
You can't "fix" malware. You can only quarantine, erase, or uninstall it.