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Computer Virus Protection

Posted: June 13th, 2009, 9:05 am
by Bostondevil
I have MacAfee and SpyZooka. I run each regularly. Is that enough? I keep getting a pop-up that purports to be from Microsoft that I do not trust at all but it's telling me I've got Trojan horses all over my computer. Things are running fine, except when I get this pop-up.

Re: Computer Virus Protection

Posted: June 13th, 2009, 1:05 pm
by DevilAlumna
It's possible that's Microsoft's "Windows Defender" - it comes installed automatically on Vista, and is a free download for Windows XP.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc ... fault.mspx

It's also possible that the pop-ups are phishing attempts and/or trying to get you to install malware, but those usually only come from suspect web sites. When does the pop-up occur?

Are your virus definitions up to date with McAfee?

For general security information, this site's a good start:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/default.mspx

Re: Computer Virus Protection

Posted: June 13th, 2009, 2:07 pm
by colchar
Bostondevil wrote:I keep getting a pop-up that purports to be from Microsoft that I do not trust at all but it's telling me I've got Trojan horses all over my computer.

To my knowledge, that pop-up is a virus/adware/whatever. It tries to convince you to download somethign to fix the problems it claims exist and that download would contain all sorts of problems.

Re: Computer Virus Protection

Posted: June 13th, 2009, 2:19 pm
by Bostondevil
colchar wrote:
Bostondevil wrote:I keep getting a pop-up that purports to be from Microsoft that I do not trust at all but it's telling me I've got Trojan horses all over my computer.

To my knowledge, that pop-up is a virus/adware/whatever. It tries to convince you to download somethign to fix the problems it claims exist and that download would contain all sorts of problems.
Thanks, that's what I thought. I update with the Microsoft website fairly often. I think it's only come on when I'm on Facebook.

Re: Computer Virus Protection

Posted: June 14th, 2009, 8:04 am
by CameronBornAndBred
Can you post a screenshot?

Re: Computer Virus Protection

Posted: June 14th, 2009, 9:35 am
by Bostondevil
CameronBornAndBred wrote:Can you post a screenshot?
Me? =)) =)) =)) =))

(See my avatar?)

Re: Computer Virus Protection

Posted: June 14th, 2009, 9:38 am
by Bostondevil
I update my MacAfee and my SpyZooka regularly. I run them on my computer fairly often. This thing pops up and is hard to close and just acts weird so I don't trust it. It's happened a couple of times. I run MacAfee afterwards when it does. Even if it is legit, I don't feel like I need it. If I had that many harmful programs on my computer, I think I'd be having problems. Other than this particular pop-up, I'm not.

Re: Computer Virus Protection

Posted: June 14th, 2009, 9:41 am
by CameronBornAndBred
Bostondevil wrote:
CameronBornAndBred wrote:Can you post a screenshot?
Me? =)) =)) =)) =))

(See my avatar?)
It's easy. Click on the offending window. Then hit "Alt-Print Scrn". Then open paint, click edit, and then click on paste. Save it and post it. :geek:

Re: Computer Virus Protection

Posted: June 14th, 2009, 1:01 pm
by Bostondevil
If it ever pops up again, I will try that.