User error
Somehow, while I was away for several months, the extra laptop I leave in my apartment became infested with spyware. I’m sure it was user error. I’m not sure who the user was.
It doesn’t matter. I’m worried, for some reason, about the poor little laptop. I don’t even use it, except on nights when I’m too beat to carry home my usual laptop from the office. But it’s like some innocent lamb that I left alone and now is a mess. I’ve run three different kinds of scans time after time, I’ve downloaded every possible update, and I’m not comforting the machine at all. Even with no online connection, new stuff shows up in each scan. I’m distracted by this - I’m spending hours trying to win this battle. And it’s completely fruitless.
Moral: Don’t leave your laptops alone for months at a time. Something horrendous could happen to them. Or get a Mac.