"However, they simply do not know what they are talking about (even though they think they do)"
Well I guess I think I do, and I am a pc tech

I use to put MS security essentials on my customers machines. But MS has the slower scanner on the market so it caused programs to take up to 5 sec or more longer to open because you where waiting for it to scan.
http://www.av-comparatives.org/So I started putting the free Panda cloud Online and it has a better detect rate, same low false positives as MS and a faster scanner.
Malwarebytes is a good scanner to run as well.
But I dont think you have a virus. You emailed me the contents of the notepad and it wasn't a virus.
Go to start then run and put in msconfig
There check the startup tab and tell me what you have

A screen shot of the tab might be even better.
Shane