XP Antivirus 2008 is one of the most insidious spywares out there today. It is so bad that it managed to get past the full-blown McAfee protection suite that I have on my personal computer. I was devastated thinking I was never going to get this thing off of my computer which up until now had remained both virus and spyware free.
The most important thing to understand about this new spyware is that you can't just get it from cruising porn websites. I got it from doing research on an article I was writing for a paying client about movie star Angelina Jolie. I was looking at a website about the movie star and taking notes when suddenly my McAfee went nuts saying there were trojans trying to be downloaded onto my computer. Once I realized what was happening I quickly began backing out of the website and closing all the little pop up windows that were suddenly appearing, but by then it was too late. The spyware had somehow tricked McAfee into letting it onto my computer.
I was in a word devastated because I had no way of knowing just what this stuff was going to do to my computer security. It had replaced my desktop wallpaper with a blue screen and little pop up window saying that my computer was infected. Well, duh! I had already figured that out. My next step was to go and see if the spyware was in my control panel's program listing which strangely enough it was. I tried to uninstall it and of course it said it was uninstalled but unlike other programs it did not disappear from the list once it was uninstalled but instead remained.
My next step was to go to my trusty AdAware and run it, and lo and behold that did absolutely...nothing. AdAware didn't even know this stuff was on my computer. Like McAfee it acted as if it wasn't even there. That was when I knew I needed to go online and see if I could find out how to remove this nasty spyware. Only one problem, Google and Yahoo would both get hijacked as soon as I left the page with the results to a webpage about, you guessed it XP Antivirus 2008 software for you computer. I finally realized that some enterprising marketer or someone who hated the company that puts out this software had created a spyware to mess with my and other's computers. Finally in desperation I went to Ask.com and would you believe, suddenly I'm not being hijacked. I spent three hours searching online for the answer to remove this spyware from my computer. Most of the answers were things like, "back up your computer and then wipe your hard drive and reinstall windows," or "you're going to need to take this to a professional to remove," and finally, "well here are some instructions to remove it manually yourself, but if you're not a computer expert we don't suggest you try this." I was not a happy person until I finally came across a website for computer experts that made sense. On this website it was suggested that I download a software called Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. It said that in the majority of cases this software was able to remove this spyware. I downloaded and installed it and then prayed.
Fortunately, this software successfully removed XP Antivirus 2008 from my computer, including the nasty desktop background it had added. While you can download this software for free and use it for free, if you purchase the Pro version for a measly $24.95 it will actually monitor your computer just like your Anti-Virus software does to protect you from spyware trying to get onto your computer. It has a few other bells and whistles as well. Or you can just download the free version and run it once a week to be sure nothing has slipped past your firewall and protection suite.
I thought my computer was totally protected but I learned recently that is not the case. You can have a great firewall, and even a full protection suite as I do and still get spyware/malware. I really recommend getting Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and checking your computer often, even if you don't get the XP Anitivirus 2008 spyware on your computer, it's worth it!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment