As we know, lots of people are getting infected with “Windows AntiVirus 2008” which is a nasty little so & so and difficult to remove once it is installed.
It is often downloaded onto your computer without your knowledge (as a “drive by” download) when you visit music or movie sites or even, shall we say, less than reputable sites.
However in order for it to be installed, it has to be given a command from the computer user. It suckers you into doing this by presenting you with what appears to be a genuine Windows security warning message – even including the little Orange/Green/Blue/ & Yellow shield from the Windows Security Centre. (to see what this looks like, go to ‘Control Panel and look at / click to open “Security Centre”).
From then on, it doesn’t matter whether you click “OK” or “Cancel” or even the red cross in the top right hand corner, it will execute as if you had clicked “OK”. Nasty eh?
The way to kill it before it installs is to press Ctrl + Alt + Del and this will open Task Manager on your desktop. Click the Left tab called “Applications” then highlight the line called “Windows security warning (or similar) and then click “End Task” which is usually one of the buttons at the bottom right hand side.
BTW you can also use this method to get rid of internet pop-ups (assuming that you get them) without running the risk of them installing anything onto your computer.