Yeap. That's not a bad idea. looking for a new, decent torrent client.
What I've done, which may not be the best idea, but it's the best one I have, is to delete the uTorrent folder, and to run it over with cipher to kill whatever's left. I'll shuffle through the registry to see if it's left anything nice for me, but other than that Malwarebytes, Windows Defender and Spybot 2 did squat. It's entirely possible this rouge is passive, and is just a credential harvesting tool and a platform to spread the stupid number.
I will of course run everything over with a full scan on Windows Defender to make sure.
And as for Linux, Windows Server 2016 is the closest you will get to a proper professional grade linux experience that has perfect compatibility with most windows programs.
I also want to see if I can trick Avast into installing here, that is by far the best active AV software I have ever used.
I will respond later if there is any other issues, but for now I seem to have removed it. Maybe I'll forward a copy to someone so they can add it to their detection systems.