Thanks everyone for the helpful comments.

From Microsoft's Help website I am receiving assistance from:

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
Microsoft MVP (Windows Client) since October 2002

In addition to giving me instructions he has provided me with this very important link to an article regarding TotalAV antivirus program from whom I purchased a 1 year subscription last January:
https://www.onlinethreatalerts.com/article/2017/2/14/do-not-buy-totalav-it-is-a-fake-antivirus-software/

I think its worth spreading around. I got ripped off. Hopefully others can be forewarned.

BTW, they did recommend a few AVs such as Webroot, Norton, McAfee as well as a few others.
It was also recommended that I run Malwarebytes. I went ahead and purchased the Pro version.
After running a scan it identified more than 20 pup files. After following the prompt to quarantine the files and rebooting my computer, I discovered something very, very interesting.

TotalAV was also identified as a threat, uninstalled and all of its files were removed! Again..........Sheeeesh!!