You might be wondering why we have a screenshot of what appears to be AVG Anti-Virus, but is in fact a fake anti-virus malware that holds your computer hostage until you pay them. Here’s a really simple tip to defeating these types of malware, and a quick review of other options.

Not sure what we’re talking about? Be sure to check out our previous articles on cleaning up fake antivirus infections.

• How To Remove Internet Security 2010 and other Rogue/Fake Antivirus Malware
• How To Remove Antivirus Live and Other Rogue/Fake Antivirus Malware
• How To Remove Advanced Virus Remover and Other Rogue/Fake Antivirus Malware
• How To Remove Security Tool and other Rogue/Fake Antivirus Malware

So what’s the problem? Can’t you just run a anti-virus scan? Well… it’s not quite that simple. What actually happens is that these pieces of malware block you from running almost anything on your PC, and often prevent you from running apps from a Flash drive, with an error like this:

Once you encounter this error, there’s a couple things you can do. The first one is almost stupidly simple, and works some of the time