ALL Programs are now **.lnk

After downloads, and "FREE Scan" Trials of several
Anti-Virus/Anti-spy/Anti-Malware vendors, my PC started freezing, and
siezing, and locking up badly. I Uninstalled ALL traces(I hope) of the
trial-packs' programs. Now, ALL of my programs end in *.lnk [ even on the
Start button listings ], everything is sluggish-at-best, and I'm receiving
frequent "Runtime Errors", MSIMN.exe errors, and "Unexplained Error" forced
program terminations.
I've run the MS Full Protection/Clean/Tune-up Scans, and was told that my PC
has NO problems, even though the 3rd-party scans say I'm terribly infested
and need to purchase their FULL packages.

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KTM, Saco, ME