this evening I suddenly got a pop message stating my pc is infected and is trying to persuade me to download MS removal Tool.
My Microsoft essentials has disapeared too and the desk top has turned blue.
Help please!!
Pete
Hopefully somebody familiar with 'modern' windows systems may come along and offer better advice, but meanwhile...
I'd be very suspicious as to whether that popup is genuine. More likely Id say, you have been infected by some malware that is now trying to dupe you into installing something even nastier. Malware writers have been playing that game for years, so I'd be surprised if any legitimate microsoft utilities behaved in the same way.
Be especially wary that any link in the popup box, apparently offering to download anything to fix things, could be completely fake and point instead to some evil trojan. Have you tried cutting & pasting the EXACT text from the popup box, into a google search? Odds on you'll find there's lots of other people with same experience.
I was hit by something similar on XP a few years back. In that case, recovering from an earlier restore point got rid of the popups, after which I downloaded & installed trial versions of various AV (NcAfee, Norton etc), most of which failed to detect anything. Kaspersky eventually spotted the malware and disinfected it. But I'm not an expert on these things, so don't necessarily assume it'd work for you.
PS: I just noticed, HP seemingly agrees with my suspicions. His advice sounds good.
