Is it that underpowered?

Question

I just bought this computer. My old pavillion was giving me fits and the budget was tight, so I chose a bottom of the line machine. I do Microsoft Office, Quickbooks, Family Tree Maker, etc. I don't do any gaming or anything that would require a particularly fast computer.
I picked up some malware before I could even download the updates from Microsoft (they wouldn't start). I can't rmember the name, but it was a browser hijacker.  I think I picked it up when I downloaded Firefox. The guy who works for me uninstalled the malware and removed it from Explorer and Chrome and just deleted Firefox. He says there is no sign of it.
The computer runs slower than molasses in the winter time, even with just Office open. He says it's only 1.8 mhz, so accepts the slowness as just the way it is (he's a computer geek and wanted me to buy a more expensive machine). I can't believe HP would sell a machine that would be that slow. I think maybe that malware is still there. I have run a full scan with AVG and nothing shows up.
Two questions: Could it really be that slow? and how do I confirm the malware is gone?
Another thing that should probably be on another fourm; There is this stupid thing that comes up everytime you click to open a file. It asks you what program you want to open it with. You would think if it's a Word file, it would open with Word, etc. But it asks you if you want to open a Word file with Chrome, Word, Explorer and something else. How do you get that off there?
choco

Answer 1

HERE is the spec page for that unit.  It is a budget PC and may preform at a disappointing speed. 
CPU speed: 1.4 GHz
CPU cores: 2
It really is not much of a unit but will still work..  About the same as a HP mini tablet
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