If you're surfing the wild wild web, and suddenly a pop-up appears telling that "Windows Anti-virus 2012 has detected a problem and needs to scan your system" and then it tries to begin another operation, such as installing a file called "Setup.exe", just do a reboot or whatever to get the hell off that page immediately. It's a virus trying to take over your computer.
Your first clue is: there's no such thing as 'Windows Anti-virus 2012' - it's called Windows Defender. Your second clue is: No regular anti-virus has to install any "Setup.exe" before doing its thing. Your third clue is: When you try to get away from it, it tries to prevent that action and keep you connected to it. So do a reboot or shut down your computer or whatever you need to do to get clear of that before it can perform whatever it is trying to do. Then do a scan of your system with a reputable anti-virus like Avast 6.0 to make sure you're clean. And try to stay away from the webpage you were on when it showed up with those pop-ups.
FYI Ray, this thing has been around for years... 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008... and people, unfortunately, continue to fall for it. Trying to get it off your computer is a good trick also.
ReplyDeleteHi, Tommy -
ReplyDeleteYes, I Googled it after I got out of there, and you're right - it's been
around for years. This was the first time I discovered it, though.
Times like that, it's handy to have a shortcut on the desktop for a Reboot, and if you make one, include the dash plus lowercase 'f' to force-close anything that's open, so it happens as quickly as possible.
If you find something that's got you locked out, there's a good little freebie program called
MoveOnBoot from EMCO in Iceland
that can remove locked files or folders during a Reboot, in between the times those would be
in active RAM, so the system doesn't interfere with the operation. It works really well.
Here's their web address =>
http://emcosoftware.com/move-on-boot