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It is now crashing many times a day
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How long has this been going on? And how recently is the printer issue? This last day or two?
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and I am having to re-boot as when I try to close a program through task manager I lose all icons and the task bar on the desktop.
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Not sure what you mean here. You should rarely have to force stop a program from Task Manager. What problems are you having that keeps taking you into Task Manager?
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There seems to be no rhyme or reason
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That usually points to heat. Does it happen right after booting up first thing in the morning or after a long power off/complete cool-down cycle? Or only after it has been running for a while and warmed up?
When was the last time you had the side of the case off to inspect for heat trapping dust build up and fan operation? I poke my head in once a month and clean when needed - when dust (dog hair, cookie crumbs, and a fly once) bridges the CPU heatsink fins. Never buy a case without a filter.
If your system is clean inside, it could still be heat related. Ambient (room) temperatures are higher this time of year (Northern Hemisphere anyway) - but it could be signs of a component failing due to defect, or age.
What are your CPU, system and video temperatures?
When you got your head in there, inspect the motherboard for bulging or leaking electrolytic capacitors. These failed or failing capacitors are a common cause of sudden, but seemingly random system lock ups and reboots. The capacitors look like tall soda cans, many of which surround the CPU socket.
All older motherboards, and many of today's less expensive motherboards use electrolytic capacitors containing a
liquid electrolyte. Failing (including flawed and/or abused/over-heated) capacitors literally bulge at the seams due to excessive internal pressures. Extreme (and very rare) cases result in a firecracker type explosion that can really stink up a room. Typically, electrolyte just
oozes from the pressure relief points stamped in the tops of the capacitor casings (seen as a symbol or letter). The electrolyte can be caustic to motherboards and flesh. Look for white to dark-brown, dried liquid or foam on the tops or bottoms of the capacitors. Bulging capacitors are a sign leakage is about to occur.
A motherboard with bulging or leaky capacitors can be repaired, but often it is more cost effective in the long run to replace the motherboard.
Did you recently add new hardware? Have you added hardware since new and ensured the power supply was adequate?
I would keep an eye on your temperatures, particularly, the CPU temps. Your motherboard utilities disk should have a monitoring program (or check for a more recent version on your motherboard or PC maker's website). If none, I recommend
CoreTemp for newer Intel and AMD64 CPUs.
SpeedFan is a great and popular alternative,
or you can try
Motherboard Monitor. Unfortunately, I have found that these programs often have problems properly identifying and labeling the sensor they are reading. The temperatures shown are as accurate as the inexpensive, low-tech sensors will allow, but it may say System Fan instead of CPU Fan. Fortunately, the programs do allow you to edit the labels, so I use
Everest to verify the temperatures (as it is able to put sensor to label correctly), then edit the label in the monitoring program. In Everest, look under Computer > Sensor, then wait a couple seconds for the readings to appear. Unfortunately, Everest does not minimize to the system tray to show real-time temperatures, otherwise, you could use Everest instead of the others.
In the meantime, open the side and blast a desk fan in there and see what happens (another reason to make sure there is no heat trapping dust in there
).
Fortunately, AVG does a good job with Trojans, so after many years of faithful service, I let my Trojan Hunter expire a few months back. No problem so far, but I do run supplement scans with
Malwarebytes's Anti-Malware (MBAM) and I recommend you do the same. Run through your thorough crud cleaning routine to rid the system of new temp files first - no need to scan potentially 1000s of temporary Internet files, cookies, etc.
Sadly, it could be the motherboard. 
