This is a warning about a severe threat that is floating around the internet. It has many names and tries to disguise it's self as an antivirus or antispyware program but it actually is the virus.
Most commonly known as "Antivirus 2009", this threat randomly pops-up when browsing the internet without warning on any website and looks like a legit antivirus program. Don't be fooled. It also goes by the names "Antivirus 2008", "Vista Antivirus 2009", "MS AntiSpyware 2009" and other variants that are frequently released.
If your user account is an administrator, and (if using Windows Vista) User Account Control is turned off, this virus will begin installing itself as soon as the alert window pops up. If it continues to run - even without clicking anything, it will disable your antivirus software and start downloading hundreds of viruses that can delete anything and everything on your computer's main boot drive or corrupt the partition wiping the entire drive. (This is no hoax. We've seen it in operation.)
If this shows up on your screen, you have about 2 seconds to "hard kill" the computer to avoid the imminent threat. During this time DO NOT CLICK on anything! Go directly for the power button! Just press and hold the power button until the machine shuts off.
Once you have turned off the computer DO NOT TURN the computer back on. Instead call us, 614-538-1622, immediately. We can give you instructions on how to scan the machine for damage, or we'll come take a look at it.
Our exclusive PainFree Tech Services™ Computer Configuration sets up your computer to avoid this threat as much as possible. That coupled with ESET Antivirus Solutions will provide 99% protection. But these virus writers are crafty and are constantly morphing this thing to fool even the best configurations, so you need to be aware of some things that will keep you from falling prey to their schemes.
First, get to know your antivirus product. If it's ESET, Norton, McAfee, or whomever, get to know what the virus alert screen looks like. (Windows Defender and Windows Live Onecare are legitimate products from Microsoft.) IF ANY VIRUS OR SPYWARE ALERT APPEARS THAT IS NOT FROM YOUR ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM, IT IS BOGUS! Immediately kill the computer. Damage from a hard kill is far less than you will experience if the thing takes root.
Second, do NOT randomly browse the internet with an administrator user account or with Vista's User Account Control turned off. (We know using a limited user account in XP is a pain, but it's much more painful to get this bug!) This protection stops installation of virus programs in its tracks. Of the machines that we have seen with limited user accounts that have hit this bug, none have become infected, while every machine with administrator privileges that gets this bug has to be reformatted. Vista's User Account Control does the same job, however if it flags an operation that you did not initiate, do NOT continue!