Do any of you know how to get rid of the 'Windows 2010 Security' virus?

Look here towards the bottom are manual instructions.

You will have to go into safe mode to do this.

Oh, man, they don’t give up on this one, do they? Problem is, it looks so real & every panics when they see all those bugs that come up. Good for you that you questioned it, or you’d have a REAL mess.

@ChazMaz I see the manual instructions, but do you have experience with the “Automatic Internet Security 2010 removal” on that page?

The site advertises Spyware Doctor, and I don’t trust any paid anti-virus/malware programs. Even the big “legit” programs (like Mcaffee, Symantec) virtually ARE viruses, chronically slowing down the computer and periodically demanding money.

I never use the software to remove these things. Just follow the manual instructions.

I am with you on that one.
I fear that they are just another form of a scam.

@ChazMaz OK, thanks. And thanks to @Mozart for bringing this up. I have an appointment this weekend to look at a friend’s computer, she ran into the 2010 virus yesterday and this was a reminder to read up on it.

I do trust the free Malwarebytes to kill these kind of things. And the free AVs have worked weill for me (AVG, Avira, Avast and Microsoft Security Essentials).

Though none of them find everything, I always run Malwarebytes plus one of the others.

Malwarebytes is excellent. It’s found and removed more crap on my computer than McAfee ever did.

Thanks everyone! I’ve completely gotten rid of the virus
Also, I ran a search for the ‘av.exe’ file and found it as a hidden file in the WINDOWS folder.
Thanks again! :)

Good. I’m glad you got rid of it. It’s a nasty thing.

Boy, am I glad I just switched to Ubuntu :D

@jaytkay I agree with all of your software recommendations except AVG. While most of the tests I’ve seen place it better than McCaffee, it still is considerably lower than Avast! and Avira (which usually are in the top three) and anecdotally, AVG was what I was running when I got the one virus I ever caught on a personal system of mine.
If 92% is good enough for you then so be it. I will stick with 99.4% :P

I have Avira on here, too. Very good program.

Guy
This is a trojan.
A trojan horse virus is a type of spyware that mask itself as real program such as an anti-virus program or a media player. Typical trojan
“Anitivirus 2010” These programs to actually duplicate like most viruses. It just wants you to mistakenly install it.
Look here to scan your PC.