(I frequently change my strong user password, though I hear that this isn't much help with today's password grinders.) According to Avast and TCPview many internet connections are loopbacks - I understand that these are normal for some legit system programs, but often indicate malware trying to elevate its privileges. Some of the symptoms - a *lot* of logons and secondary logons, some as expected by Builtin security principals, others anonymous or unknown, and even papilio$ (this usually after 2 or 3 unsuccessful logon attempts) according to Events Viewer Security. I have taken no action on those programs which the security forums have advised to leave to the pros, such as Hijackthis and gmer. It would usually help for a short time, then it all starts to build up all over again. I've been seeing quite a few, uhm, 'anomalies' in my system increasingly for months, and have been using various tools to attempt to fix things myself - have also done clean installs of Windows 7, after having zero-filled the HD, flushed the RAM, cleared the CMOS, and installed a freshly downloaded BIOS from Dell.
