My PC was attacked again. Somehow this program called System Security 4.51 installed itself in my PC and displayed a message saying it found over 30 infections in the system. Of course, the viruses were fake. This program only wants you to believe there are threats on your hard drive, so you can go ahead and buy their antivirus software to remove them.

I tried to close the program, but it only minimized itself into the taskbar. It wasn’t listed in the programs list, so I could not remove it (Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs). I tried to open the Task Manager by pressing CTRL ALT and DEL, but as soon as it showed up the window disappeared. If that had worked, I thought I could find the process that starts System Security 4.51 and close it. Now this looked like a more serious issue.

I tried to run msconfig and regedit to find the process or files connected to this program, but as soon as I typed in the name and clicked on OK, the program displayed another message in the taskbar, saying that application was infected! It blocked other applications as well, so that I couldn’t run my antivirus and antispyware software.

The only way to achieve anything was to reboot in Safe Mode. I wasn’t sure if I needed the Internet connection for this, so I selected the Safe Mode with Networking option. I still couldn’t remove the program manually, but I could open the System Configuration Utility (Start, Run, type msconfig). Unfortunately, System Security wasn’t listed in the startup programs list.

Finally, I ran the Windows Live OneCare Safety scanner from the Microsoft Web site and it was able to find 3 severe issues and 2 medium threats. At last, it was able remove the annoying System Security program.

Only after I removed the threats and restarted the PC, I found out that there is a removal tool for this program. Apparently, many PC users have experienced the same problem. You can find the tool here. Or, if you want detailed instructions, read this blog post. Even though I was able to get rid of the program and pop ups, some files may have remained in the PC. Therefore, I suggest you try one of these removal options.