Is Trend Micro Internet Security Really Protecting My Computer?

[hotcommodity]

So here's the situation:

A few months ago, my dad decided to try a free internet security trial from Trend Micro. It simply involves downloading updates about once a day, and a routine scan for potential viruses. Everything was fine for the first few months, but just today it reported that it found multiple viruses. This happened as I was surfing the net for ebooks (although I didn't download a single thing). I was able to run a scan, find a few of the folders containing viruses, and delete them (and trend micro "cleaned" a few of them). However, I don't believe all of the files containing viruses were cleaned or deleted. Ever since the first scan, strange things have been happening, to include:

-The computer restarting itself in the middle of running a full scan.
-Audio commercials (for things like beer and the show "dirty jobs," strangely enough) playing, although there's no window from which it could be coming from.
-The computer completely freezing while running a quick scan
-An internet window set to google popped up in the middle of me typing this post.
-The sizes of the text in the internet windows has been reset.

I'm not computer savy, so I have no idea what to do. I've never had a problem with viruses before we downloaded this internet "security," but it seems beyond coincidental that viruses show up all of the sudden, especially two weeks before the free trial ends. Anyway, if anyone can help me disinfect my computer, it would be much appreciated. All advice is welcome.

Also, is it safe for me to get on personal accounts over the internet, or is it possible for information (such as passwords and emails) to be stolen? Again, any help is appreciated.

 

[colonelcrayon]

Antivirus software is bad security. In the future, work on user competence and use a limited account.

I would personally recommend reinstalling.

 

[minger]

Definitely back up (if you can) and bomb your computer and start over. You don't even need to download things now-a-days in order to get viruses. They can be stored in metadata inside of picture files. Simply browsing websites can get you infected.

Get another computer and download the updates to whatever antivirus you use (avast! is free, I use it on two machines at home, in addition to TrendMicro). After you reinstall, make sure you install the antivirus before connecting to a network.

As mentioned above, give yourself a basic user account for daily use such that if you do something again, hopefully the damage will be limited.

 

[hotcommodity]

I got on the avg anti-virus site, and they have some free disinfecting tools, which cleaned a few things up. But it's looking like I'll have to reinstall everything nonetheless. I'll create separate accounts in the future, thanks for the advice.