Not specifically a recipe virus, but a client got her Windows Seven Dell notebook infected with one of those scare-ware programs that claims the machine is infected with all kinds of nasties and then demands money to remove them.

The interesting feature is that she got infected while searching for a recipe for couscous. Pretty innocuous search. So it just goes to show you can get caught looking for the most innocent stuff.

What I find annoying is that she has McAfee installed, all up to date and protecting her from malware. NOT.

This particular infection wrote three entries into the registry, subverted downloads to 127.0.0.1, changed the home page on IE and made IE the default browser. It also stopped McAfee from running and blocked my attempts to install Spy Bot.

I thought Windows Seven was good at stopping this type on nonsense? It asks permission to do almost anything on the PC, boxes pop up if you try to install new software – “are you sure you want to do this?” But somehow all this protection was completely bypassed.

I am very disappointed Microsoft, and livid at McAfee.

You know the answer to the problem by now I am sure.