Windows Users Beware - XP Antivirus 2012 Virus making the rounds

I have just had another person show me a computer with XP Antivirus 2012 on it. This is a virus/malware, not antivirus. It takes over your computer, preventing you from doing anything, including running removal software. It is sneaky, and usually gets on computers when you download "required codec or add-on" for viewing a video or doing something on a web site.

There are a variety of variants of this virus and it changes names depending on the operating system and year. There is a version for XP and Vista. There

The virus keeps showing you security alerts and fake virus on your computer to try to get you to purchase "the full version" of the product. It's a scam.

Below is a link to instructions on how to remove it.


Reference:
http://www.malwareguides.com/xp-antivirus-2012-virus-removal-guide.html



Make sure you always keep your anti-virus and malware protection up to date.
And remember, Apple products are not immune from malware, virus, and hacks. So protect your system.


5 Free utilities for Windows - very useful and powerful (includes AVG Free)

Ad-Aware free download

5 Free utilities for Windows - very useful and powerful

Windows comes with some utilities that allow you to perform different maintenance on the system, but the included versions are not always the best.



Piriform has a variety of free utilities for Windows that I use and that I recommend to others.



CCleaner - cleans out your temporary files, internet history, cookies, form history, recycle bin, and more. It can also analyze and repair issues with the registry, one of the main reasons why Windows can slow down and have issues.  It is a small file and works fast and effectively and I've used it to get many a computer running better.



DeFraggler - defrag your entire hard drive or even just individual files. As Windows files are opened, copied, and moved, the file data can be stored in different parts and on different parts of the disk. This can slow down the reading and accessing of these files. DeFraggler works even better than the built in defrag utility in Windows.


 
Recuva - Recuva can recover deleted and lost files from your hard drive to save you when you accidentally delete a file, or even some files lost during a computer crash. It can even recover deleted files off of a flash drive, which just saved one of my students from losing some work.


Speccy - Speccy allows you to see all of the system information for your computer. This can be helpful when dealing with problems and issues.




AVG Free Antivirus - free anti-virus and anti-spyware protection. It found some infected files on a computer I was working on that two big name anti-virus systems missed.




All of these are excellent utilities, do their job well, and help you with keeping your system in tip top shape.

Free utilities for Windows - very useful and powerful

Windows comes with some utilities that allow you to perform different maintenance on the system, but the included versions are not always the best.



Piriform has a variety of free utilities for Windows that I use and that I recommend to others.



CCleaner - cleans out your temporary files, internet history, cookies, form history, recycle bin, and more. It can also analyze and repair issues with the registry, one of the main reasons why Windows can slow down and have issues.  It is a small file and works fast and effectively.



DeFraggler - defrag your entire hard drive or even just individual files. As Windows files are opened, copied, and moved, the file data can be stored in different parts and on different parts of the disk. This can slow down the reading and accessing of these files.


 
Recuva - Recuva can recover deleted and lost files from your hard drive to save you when you accidentally delete a file, or even some files lost during a computer crash.


Speccy - Speccy allows you to see all of the system information for your computer. This can be helpful when dealing with problems and issues.




AVG Free Antivirus - free anti-virus and anti-spyware protection.




All of these are excellent utilities, do their job well, and help you with keeping your system in tip top shape.