PatrickMarkham.com
The latest nuisance to hit my clients’ computers is AntiVirusXP2008 (or AntiVirX08). It claims to be a genuine Anti Virus tool. It is in fact a very misleading piece of malware that reports that you have heaps of viruses and that the only way to get rid of them is to purchase the AntiVirusXP2008 tool. Don’t be tempted!
It brings with it plenty of viruses causing anything from pop-ups to blue screens. The application is not uninstallable using its own ‘uninstall routine’ and indeed using Add/Remove in Control Panel.
Quite how it is to be completely removed is still work in progress as far as I am concerned. The instructions on the Symantec site help get rid of the necessary registry entries and I can get rid of the viruses but I’m still left with the PCs occasionally ‘blue-screening’.
UPDATE
I have learnt that the ‘blue screening’ is not in fact blue screening. Its just a desktop image made to look like a blue screen.
I have also found that my tool of choice for removal of this virus is AVG Anti-Virus. Ask me for a copy or buy it on ebay using this link.
FURTHER UPDATE
This virus is still around and it gets cleverer. The latest version that I am dealing with calls itself ANTI VIRUS 360. A bold move that rips off the respected Norton’s product name. This edition of the pesky software appears to modify the Google page. It tells you that you have an unregistered copy of Anti Virus 360 and Google recommends that you purchase it. There are other sites that it wont even give you access to. Instead you get a message that tells you that your PC is under threat and that you such purchase this malicious software.
I’m still finding that the quickest, cheapest and easiest way to get rid of this nuisance is to format and reinstall everything from scratch. It’s the only way I can be sure… unless you know better?