As it says on the tin?
How do i remove it ? It pops up every 2 mins for no reason.

I need a little more info.

For a start, is it a genuine Microsoft product? There is a spyware download called "MS Antivirus" which is the title of this thread. There is a product called Microsoft Defender which is the official Microsoft anti-spyware product, but they don't make a dedicated anti virus application.

When you say "pop up", what do you mean? And can you show a screenshot of the popup?

What OS are you running? (although it you provide a screenshot I'll be able to see).


In general terms, if something has been installed it's very likely to be listed in the Add/Remove Programs dialog (accessible from the control panel).

Na - if I remember correctly, this is Malware. Try running Spybot Search & Destroy, or Ad-Aware. Also do a full anti-virus check...

Click to view attachment

It has defo not been installed. I got a virus with a torrent i downloaded and I got everything sorted apart from this.

That looks like malware matey. Microsofts AV product is called Live OneCare. No such product as MS Anti-Virus.

First link on google

Not that I want to question that, but it's the first sponsored link on google. I rarely trust things in sponsored links and will actively avoid them.

While we are all agreed it is a malware product and needs deleted, you wonder why the supplier is spending money on advertising an application they giving away.

Given that early versions of this "Spyhunter" program flopped in a similar kind of way Defender is flopping, I wouldn't trust it at all regardless of what current reviews are like for it.

Spybot and Ad-Aware should see you through this.

All the applications on that site seem to be from a company called Spyhunter. Presumably its just another front for their marketing.

Im not endorsing the site, merely pointing out that a quick google search should point the OP to how to remove this malware.

Youre too suspicious by half sometimes

edited to add - that link actually gives instructions on how to remove this without their software. Dont know if it will work, and their goal is obviously to get you to use their software, but worth a try first.

Then download Spybot and Adaware

Spy hunter is the program, Enigma Software is the company. Bit of digging uncovered this little gem...

Linkage

Quite rightly too!

I used to run Greasemonkey on FF with a script for any of the google sites that removed all the AdSense, the sponsored links and totally tidied up the search results pages while providing cross links to other resource sites, really useful. I re-installed my OS ages ago and never got round to replace it.

I FF.

A wee hint: if you're unsure, look at the grammar. For all the effort virus creators take to infect computers with malicious code, you'd think they'd get someone to convincingly check over the text.

Good luck getting rid of it mate.

Check this out - hope you didnt buy it

From the conclusion...

This type of malware is very, very disturbing. One can only wonder how many users have been duped into installing ineffective security software, and what happened to their private information and credit card data when they paid for it. The presence of such software, and the overall very high quality of the ruse it presents, is frightening. More than likely, thousands of people have been fooled. In fact, this type of deception has been around for several years now, and it would not still be here if it did not work well.

It's Darwinism on the computer. The stupid and those not paying attention will end up losing their data, passing on their contacts to spammer and losing money to boot!

Indeed. It appears more and more people are having their hardware become part of a botnet without even realising it. At the end of last month there was a vast quantity of MSNBC and CNN bogus emails received in the spam mailbox at work. After a quick glance over the contents of it today showed around the same quantity of emails advertising this MS Anti-Virus 2008 along with UPS and FedEx "You have a parcel waiting here, if we could just have your credit card details..."

I hate spammers...

While it is the spammers fault, this wouldn't exist if it wasn't for two specific conditions..

1) Idiots that know as much about how a computer works as they do the inner workings a nuclear reactor.

2) An operating system that tries to cater for these idiots by automating a lot of tasks.

I notice the thread starter also has McAfee (from his taskbar.)

Why? Just... why?

"By clicking Continue button you accepting our terms and conditions"

People are all too trusting of computers. We're taught from a young age that things like roads, electrical sockets and hot taps are useful, but dangerous. However, it seems that the Internet is only dangerous if you're a kid, cause it's chock full of filthy old men, and once you're older you're in the clear.

I have recently got this as well something called Anti-virus 2009 popping up.Its a pain in the arse.

That's certainly the latest ruse. Flight tickets, Parcels, etc.

As I say, the computer version of Darwinism. It's like these rich old folk who get duped for 10's of grand from mail scams telling them they've won £m's on some foreign lottery, despite never entering one or ever hearing of it before for that matter.

I have no sympathy really. If you are gullible enough to believe that people want to give you something for nothing, or dense enough to enter your bank details to a url that's http://us-banking-info.eu then you didn't deserve the cash in the first place.

Congratulations, you've won the UK National IP Address Lottery! You were automatically entered into this as soon as your ISP gave you an IP address. Winners are selected by the National IP Address Lottery Association every month. Last months winner, Mr Smith from Bognor Regis won a whopping £134,442,123.34!

To find out how much you have won, just email your name, address, IP address, passport number and driving license with an attachment of your photograph to the address you received this email from, a photocopy of your credit card, front and back and a copy of a recent utility bill.

Many congratulations once again, and we look forward to hearing from you!

I think if I send this to enough people, I'd be onto a winner!

The sad fact is, and we all know this, that in the volumes those sorts of mails are sent out the chances are you will get some person trying to claim the prize.


Stupidity I have little time for. As they say, "a fool and his money are easily parted". However it's the gullible and greedy that I laugh most at.

I'm getting this pop up too now though thankfully havent downloaded anything.

Was already running AVG and Ad-aware though neither seems able to detect or destroy MS Antivirus. Now downloading Spybot as well. Any other advice?

You must have downloaded something, otherwise it wouldn't be on your machine..

As an actual app rather than a virus/trojan etc I wonder if it would show up in the virus/malware checkers.


As for removing it, there seems to be several applications you can download to remove it, however using an app you don't know about to remove an app you don't know about sounds too risky imo.

For a manual process, this site..

http://www.411-spyware.com/remove-ms-antivirus-2008

Gives you detailed instructions on how to stop the app and how to delete it's files, plus an explanation on just how the app got on your computer in the first place.

Brought to you by Spyhunter

I fail to see the point you are making.

On the page is manual instructions on how to remove the application without installing anything.

As there was on the page I linked to.

It seems both are affiliate sites, just that the first one gave scant details in an attempt to get you to download SpyHunter, while the other one has more information both about it's removal and how it got there in the first place.

Plus, yours was a sponsored link. Never trust sponsored links when they are offering free stuff..

I'll happily admit that the instructions on the site I linked to were pants