Computer Freezes in Several Applications

Your problems do not appear to be malware related. You do have issues with some programs installed. You still have signs of Symantec Antivirus and you are not using it anymore. This needed to be removed before anything else was ever installed. The problem is that Symantec has a very poor uninstaller and frequently requires manual uninstalls.

Please run the below then reboot. After reboot run it one more time.

Norton Removal Tool (SymNRT)

I notice that a few weeks ago is also when you install Zune Software. Did your problems begin around that time? I'm not saying Zune is bad. I know what it is. This is just a question.

The same question goes for A-Squared which appears to have been installed or updated on Dec 11 th. I would uninstall this if still installed. Too many false positives and has cause problems for some people.

You also install PC Tool Firewall Plus on Dec 10th. You implied you only installed PC Tools Antivirus but you appear to have installed a bunch of software.

Also I see all of the below files from Dec 11th. Do you know what these are from?

Code:

2008-12-11 08:58 . 2001-11-25 06:11 81,924 c:\windows\system32\drivers\VC4CB104.SYS
2008-12-11 08:58 . 2002-02-05 11:33 69,632 c:\windows\system32\FREGSHEX.DLL
2008-12-11 08:58 . 2002-02-27 06:27 65,536 c:\windows\system32\FINFCHECK.dll
2008-12-11 08:58 . 2002-06-25 10:06 45,056 c:\windows\system32\FINFCOPY.dll
2008-12-11 08:58 . 2002-02-13 05:00 45,056 c:\windows\system32\FCLKBTN.DLL

Looks like they may be for FUJIFILM USB Driver which means this is another piece of software you installed or updated around the same time.