I keep getting a popup alert that I'm convinced is a fake. It displays as a Microsoft Security Essentials Alert. The box/popup states Potential Threat and its displaying: Microsoft antivirus has found critical process activity and lists 3 threats and provides a tab to click on so that I may remove the threat (which I ignore). When I try closing the msg box, another pops up and says I need to click tab to clean computer immediately to prevent systems breakage. The only way of closing it is with Task Manager but it keeps returning and does not allow me to move forward. I have done a complete viral scan with the windows defender that finds no viruses but this obviously is something that got through and I can't seem to pin it to remove it. How can it be removed/stopped? I would appreciate that you keep in mind that I'm a complete novice and know next to nothing about technical computer issues. Heck I don't even know where in the forum my question lies!

• Moved by Cleber Marques MSFTMicrosoft employee Thursday, February 13, 2014 2:58 PM

me too. It comes up as M Alert, not familiar with that. I think its IE related though. I'll be on a website and it will kick me off...daily anymore....I clicked on it once and it tries to download but hangs until i close it. I've performed a virus scan and its not being detected as a problem. Maybe the MICROSOFT folks can make a suggestion. Of the 3 alerts, 1 claims to be Trojan. I'll post the exact info next time it comes up.

• Edited by rocknout4u Saturday, February 08, 2014 11:50 PM

I got same pop up a few nites ago. I was just surfing Summer 2014 movies and know better that most celebrity sites are great places to catch a virus. Saw it pop up and thought crap...didnt hit me right away that I didnt have Essentials on this machine AND SO I CLICKED OK TO CLEAN!

Normally I always click nothing and task manager close out...but was too late. BUT, then another pop up said would you like to save or open a random file name and it hit me then and THEN I closed it all down.

Ran my current out of date anti virus and found nothing then downloaded essentials and ran it and found nothing. Hopefully, it didnt install. Computer seems fine but who knows...maybe time to invest in Vipre Antivirus i've been putting off. Not happy to hear it got thru a hardware firewall either as I've thought about investing in one as well. 

Anyone have any symptoms of this Virus?

I figure I'll just keep checking essentials every couple days for another update and wait for the Feb 2014 Windows malware removal tool.....I know it's a known virus because my buddy in the computer field said he's already cleaned it off a couple machines but couldn't give me the symptoms or what they used off the top of his head.

• Proposed as answer by cpblizzard Monday, February 17, 2014 4:09 PM
• Unproposed as answer by cpblizzard Monday, February 17, 2014 4:09 PM

I was just at rottentomatoes looking for movies and the same ad popped up. I didn't shut down my PC immediately. I think I clicked the X to close the pop-up. Then it appeared again, but in the sidebar of the webpage. Someone mentioned rt. I don't know what that is, but I had been on RT's website tonight.

I'll run my anti-virus. I wish I could find more info about this pop-up. Worries me.

EDIT: I ran a full AVG scan & nothing.

>"I got same pop up a few nites ago. I was just surfing Summer 2014 movies and know better that most celebrity >sites are great places to catch a virus. Saw it pop up and thought crap...didnt hit me right away that I didnt have >Essentials on this machine AND SO I CLICKED OK TO CLEAN! "

• Edited by ellen618 Thursday, February 20, 2014 9:56 PM

Hi all.

The world of computing and the risks associated with computer use, especially on the web, have changed dramatically. In general, the only way to be reasonably sure that you have cleaned your PC of malware is to destroy all partitions on the hard drives and re-install.

By the time you realize that you are infected with something, you probably have additional malware problems that you are not yet aware of. The only reason to attempt to get rid of an infection is to get your PC stable enough to rescue your data prior to reinstallation.

Surf safely!

Hope this helps.

Not true, create a full image. Virus problem solved. Tested with a downloaded program with a knowing virus. Restoring the Image from my usb recovery drive worked great.

• Proposed as answer by jason-cox 20 hours 15 minutes ago
• Unproposed as answer by jason-cox 20 hours 15 minutes ago
• Proposed as answer by jason-cox 20 hours 15 minutes ago

I am receiving this same error but it says nothing about Security Essentials.  Just a statement from the webpage and 'Microsoft antivirus has found critical process error...' with just a OK tab.  Microsoft nor Norton finds anything.  Task manager can't close IE8 nor can a file dump be made from task manager.  Rebooting doesn't get rid of it either.  Norton blocks a 'serious attack'.  I can open ie8 from the desktop.  I will try to reboot in safe mode, but I'm not sure what to do after that.  Any assistance would be appreciated. 

• Proposed as answer by jason-cox 20 hours 15 minutes ago

carins99,

IE8 is not part of windows 8.1, no if, buts, about it. Please go to the proper windows forums to post this.

• Proposed as answer by jason-cox 20 hours 15 minutes ago

It happens, trigger happy. You know your, up-to-your looking sockets when you run a malwarebyte scan to find, there are over 1000 PUPS loaded in a single click.

• Edited by colakid Tuesday, March 25, 2014 7:47 PM

We have this same problem (Had it in RT 8.0 now have it in RT 8.1) It seems as if it's a redirect to a web page

Scared the Bejessus out of my wife.

Quick temp fix: Open up explorer in desktop mode- open a new tab, then close tab containing fake page.

I have also reported the site using explorer 11's "report website problems" function, as well as its safety>report unsafe website function.

May I suggest that others do the same?

Sad that there is not a "block this/current/open site" option (which seems like an obvious fix/work around given that Microsoft can't seem to create a I.E. site blacklist that's current)

By the way- I'm happiest on my non tablet good ole' laptop when using Chrome 34 in Windows 7 SP1 while running Avast free version 2014.9 in Silent Mode.

Good luck to all. Can't wait for Windows 9- Please return to some usability in the real world, Microsoft!

I had been getting a popup that said it was Windows Securiy Essentials  claiming it had found these malware files

trojan psw win32 launch

hacktool win32 /welevate.a

adware win32 fraud

After doing a lot of digging  I finally did find instances of these files on the machine and removed them. As I recall the process involved some registry hacks. In any event. I thought I had gotten rid of them but it appears they are either back or theyre not originating from my machine.   

Im still getting this same issue but its only from one site so far. I have run trendmicros Titanium Maximum Security, also Malwarebytes Premium plus, Microsoft Safety Scanner and of course Windows Defender.  I had originally been using theTrendmicro also ran HijackThis ( found nothing ) and had only recently switched to Kaspersky after reading over some reviews  on the two softwares. However Kaspersky didnt seem to want to play nice with Windows 8.1 so I switched back to Trendmicro. Cant know for sure but I suppose it could have been the malware issue causing problems for Kaspersky. So now ive run just about everything I can think of. The thing is none of these programs find anything on my computer. Everything I have

Trendmicro,

Kaspersky,

Windows Definder,

Microsoft Safety Scanner,

Malwarebytes,

Hijackthis

Says my machine is clean and free of any malware or viruses

Whatever this thing Is, its invisible nothing seems to be able to find it

Here's a strategy to employ IN ADDITION to having anti-malware software that will help keep you away from this kind of misleading adware / malware...

1. Install the MVPS hosts file to block parasite web sites. http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm This will block 99% of ads that deliver nasty stuff.

2. Reconfigure the default behavior to disallow the running of ActiveX from sites in the Internet zone. Add only the sites you really, really trust to your Trusted Sites zone. None of these should be sites that deliver ads.

3. Consider upgrading the out-of-box anti-malware software Microsoft supplies to something better. Personally I prefer Avast! free edition.

4. Practice safe computing practices - avoid downloading and installing software that you have not researched and possibly even tested yourself in a virtual machine before installing on your main system.

-Noel

I got hung up with Security Essentials pop up. RT still worked in desktop mode. Ran Windows Defender with found a virus and removed it -but still got same hang up; desktop mode still OK. Next day did Search  (using Charms) of Security Essentials and got the Security Essentials page onscreen - got the SE popup off the screen;  the SE popup showed as one of a few windows along the bottom. Deleted this window and now no longer hung up. Tablet and Desktop mode now OK.

Found this on Microsoft, I just now ran superantispyware and it found all the stuff the other scanners missed. No more security essentials pop-ups. Hope it helps.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/mse-protect_scanning/look-alike-microsoft-security-essentials-pop-up/a1c1a31f-88c3-4526-892d-7b7896825d1e

• Proposed as answer by Jakemo Sunday, March 22, 2015 7:06 PM

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