Ralph  wrote:
>I've started getting popup messages for things like antivirus 2009,>>


Antivirus 2009 is a very nasty scam. It gives you false scans, then asks 
you for money to remove its false results.Once it's in your system, it will 
prevent your a-v from updating itself, and may prevent other security 
software from running. It is virus-like in its operation, but because it's 
not actually defined by some a-v software as a true virus, it is not detected.

It will run every time you boot into Windows, and thus it protects itself, 
so you may have to remove it from "outside" Windows---ie by running an 
emergency boot Cd such as BartPE or a Ubuntu disk or something similar. 
However, try Malwarebytes first, it's your best chance.

Antivirus 2008/2009 is not actually damaging in itself, merely a huge 
annoyance which is not easily removed until you pay over your money.

Malwarebytes http://www.malwarebytes.org/ is arguably the best free tool 
for removing it, and you can Google for other specialist removal tools 
which may or may not work, depending on which of many variations of this 
scam you have.

In some cases, users have had no option but to reformat their hard drives 
in order to eliminate it.

I don't know the other names you mention, but I'd guess they are variations 
of the same thing. Sounds as if you may have visited some spoof security site.

Don Penlington

 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html

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