All of a sudden you’re inundated with pop-up ads, redirected links, confusing icons on your desk top, and a home page you never selected. Dum de dum dum…welcome to the wonderful world of Antivirus XP 2008.

If it’s any comfort, and it probably isn’t, you’re not alone. Thousands of otherwise intelligent internet users have fallen victim to the promises of this little gem of free ware.  With only the very best of intentions you run what sounded like the perfect program. A quick and easy way to find out what ad ware has infiltrated your system. There’s just one problem: now your systems worse than it was before you ran the software.

You have no idea the trouble you have caused yourself simply by running the Antivirus XP 2008 program. It has stuck its little robot fingers into more areas of your computer than you knew existed. Now you can’t surf the internet without being redirect to some site you have no interest in. It’s a challenge to use a search engine because this program keeps redirecting you. You’re ready to pull your hair out.

The onscreen display that comes up after you’ve run the program indicates that your entire system is suspect for adware and all of its inherent glitches. Ah ha, they offer you a solution: buy their upgrade to a full version of Antivirus XP 2008. This, it seems, is the only way to rid yourself of your computers gremlins.

It may not be as bad as it seems. One of the functions of Antivirus XP 2008 is to make your system appear to be in much worse shape than it really is. That’s right, that little program has painted a gloomy, if not inaccurate, picture of what’s going on within your system.

So what’s a person to do? Buy their software. Well, if you’re at all like me I’d sooner go to bed hungry than break down and buy their software. There are other solutions.

You can try manually removing Antivirus XP 2008, but it’s not advised unless you are a computer professional. One wrong step and you can make your computer worse than it is now.

A second alternative is to purchase a copy of reputable antispyware software. How can you tell if what you’re thinking of buying is reputable? Check out independent reviews online for the software. Make sure the company you buy antispyware from is a member of the Better Business Bureau.