I assume some of you know about this one but I got hit by it today and it nearly fooled me.
My main development machine was sat idle when I suddenly noticed this appear on screen:
So I obviously thought uh-oh, looks like something is goosed, then it was followed by:
Again, uh-oh. I restarted Windows and it booted but looked weird, couldn't access any files or programs and all the task bars and background were opaque black.
I left the PC for a while assuming the disk was broken as the cunning word 'SMART' on that screenshot I obviously associated with a kosher disk check.
Then I thought, hang on, why is this SMART checker on my PC, I don't remember installing anything like that and i'm sure I didn't install anything when I got my new drive so a quick Google later confirmed this was some nasty so I managed to get rid and all was well again.
Just thought i'd post it here in case anyone gets the same. Its strange as this is my development PC and so doesn't really get used for much, certainly not browsing 'dodgy' sites and Security Essentials didn't pick it up at all.
I always wonder how people get suckered by these apps but this one had me fooled briefly until i'd had a think about it, mainly because of the 1st screenshot. It looks obviously dodgy in hindsight but not so much at the time when you see this and then restart to see windows messed up.
My main development machine was sat idle when I suddenly noticed this appear on screen:
So I obviously thought uh-oh, looks like something is goosed, then it was followed by:
Again, uh-oh. I restarted Windows and it booted but looked weird, couldn't access any files or programs and all the task bars and background were opaque black.
I left the PC for a while assuming the disk was broken as the cunning word 'SMART' on that screenshot I obviously associated with a kosher disk check.
Then I thought, hang on, why is this SMART checker on my PC, I don't remember installing anything like that and i'm sure I didn't install anything when I got my new drive so a quick Google later confirmed this was some nasty so I managed to get rid and all was well again.
Just thought i'd post it here in case anyone gets the same. Its strange as this is my development PC and so doesn't really get used for much, certainly not browsing 'dodgy' sites and Security Essentials didn't pick it up at all.
I always wonder how people get suckered by these apps but this one had me fooled briefly until i'd had a think about it, mainly because of the 1st screenshot. It looks obviously dodgy in hindsight but not so much at the time when you see this and then restart to see windows messed up.
Last edited:
