Trojan:Win32/Antivirusxp

Detected by Microsoft Defender Antivirus

Aliases: Antivirus XP 2008 (other) Win32/Adware.WinFixer (ESET) Generic FakeAlert.a (McAfee) W32/WinFixer.BTB (Norman) Troj/FakeAV-AB (Sophos) AntiVirus2008 (Symantec) Program:Win32/Antivirusxp (other)

Summary

Windows Defender detects and removes this threat.

This threat is a rogue security program that displays misleading alerts regarding computer problems or falsely reports detections of malicious files on the affected machine. It does so to attempt to convince users to purchase rogue security software.

These are programs that generate misleading alerts and false detections to convince users to purchase illegitimate security software. Some of these programs, such as this threat and Program:Win32/FakeRednefed, might display product names or logos in an apparently unlawful attempt to impersonate Microsoft products. These products may represent themselves as “Antivirus XP”, “AntivirusXP 2008”, “WinDefender 2008”, “XP Antivirus”, or similar.

Find out ways that malware can get on your PC.

Use the following free Microsoft software detects and removes this threat:

Windows Defender for Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, or Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows 7 and Windows Vista
Microsoft Safety Scanner
Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

Even if we've already detected and removed this particular threat, running a full scan might find other malware that are hiding on your PC.

Enable MAPS

Enable the Microsoft Active Protection Service (MAPS) on your system to protect your enterprise software security infrastructure in the cloud.

Check if MAPS is enabled in your Microsoft security product:

Select Settings and then select MAPS.
Select Advanced membership, then click Save changes. With the MAPS option enabled, your Microsoft anti-malware security product can take full advantage of Microsoft's cloud protection service.

Join the Microsoft Active Protection Service Community.

Prevent malware infections from spam emails

For enterprise users:

Follow the appropriate Exchange Online Protection instructions to suit your business needs.
Learn about how Office 365 can help you block spam using machine learning. See First look at Advanced Threat Protection: new tools to stop unknown malware & phishing attacks for details.

Be aware of the dangers in opening suspicious emails. Don't open email attachments or links from untrusted sources.
The Microsoft SmartScreen filter can also help detect spam. It’s built-in and enabled by default in Microsoft email programs.
Submit spam and non-spam messages to Microsoft for analysis.