Until recently I had never heard of this virus nor it’s effects, but as I arrived at one of my clients he asked me to look at his computer.
Initially I thought I was looking at a typical windows interface but soon realised their was major problems, it took me some 30 minutes to access his e-mail as there was a constant pop up warning of a virus.
Now the latest version of Norton was running; he had installed it some two weeks earlier, it had detected a problem but actually stopped working when asked to remove the virus, cleverly blocked by the XP Antivirus 2008.
Some research showed a lot of talk about it, including on windows own one care sight (no comment or reply was made). But that the usual uninstall did not work. In fact most people reported that they became infected as they were fooled into believing that was a windows virus warning, the logo itself looks very similar.
Yes I had tried to uninstall it myself this is the logical step but it made matters worse, I told my client I could not fix it and would do some research at home.
I wondered if any of the news agencies had reported it only one had www.news.com.au/ but surprisingly none of the other news agencies including Reuters and the BBC had no articles on the matter.
My research however shows it was first reported in November 2007 so is not a new virus and shows how easy it is to fool well-established antivirus software like Norton.
Two sights give a comprehensive detail on what to look for and how best to remove the virus:
www.lancelhoff.com/2008/02/22/how-to-remove-xp-antivirus-protection/
www.xp-antivirus-removal.com.removal-instructions.com/removeXPAntivirus.html
It also gives a list of files to remove manually, and although most individuals infected noted that they could not find the files mentioned I found that they were there and that a normal windows search does not find them so a much slower manual search is needed.
All information suggests the use of SpyHunter XP antivirus scanner but it will cost you some 35euros (£27) to register and use the removal software, it does work but leaves some files still on the computer but these can now be found using a normal windows search and then deleted.

However I personally feel a little sceptical about it all and a part of me wonders if some of these viruses are put out by the internet security firms themselves. After all we see that at the moment apple computers are not directly targeted the big firms say there is not a call or money to be made, as there is not so many users and not much call for specialist antivirus software.
But I wonder as I smugly write my blog on my trusted MacBook how soon this will change as the use of Apple computers grow?
But my biggest question is this, having solved the problems of the virus how come I can’t upload pictures onto my blog without asking for help.
One of life’s strange mysteries.