Unable to open .exe files

I had the same nasty virus, thanks so much. I now have a paid version of Malwarebytes on my computer, My updated NOD32 didn't stop this. I also tried adding another antivirus (Mcafee), but NOD32 won't allow that, even if I turn off the real-time protection. I've had too many problems in the past when I've tried to run 2 active antivirus programs, I don't know how you do it without conflicts.

Great advice above.

Check this thread for free antivirus programs:

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.vista.security&tid=ccd008ae-c348-4542-a861-8c19870f1b6e&cat=en_us_9ca88ddb-d18d-fa0e-a366-6e527b0fba67&lang=en&cr=us&sloc=en-us&m=1&p=1

Here to get the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool 32 Bit version: 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en

Or here for the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool 64 Bit version:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=585D2BDE-367F-495E-94E7-6349F4EFFC74&displaylang=en

Also here is the Microsoft Online Safety Scanner:

https://consumersecuritysupport.microsoft.com/default.aspx?productkey=pcsafetymalware&faq=1&mytask=diagnostics&scrx=1&retry=1

There are other online scanners but be careful as some of them may be traps to infect your PC.

Here is a great free program from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

And here is the platinum standard for Malware protection:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

I suggest you buy this one for continuous proection.

As the person above said it is cheaper to protect yourself now than to lose your PC, your data, have your passwords and ID stolen, etc, later.

Especially these days when this bad stuff is getting VERY-VERY sophisticated.

So glad you all got your pc's fixed.

This was definitely a virus. From what I've read here in the descriptions it was either the same one or a similiar one that happened very recently over at photobucket.com. I was browsing there one night about 3 weeks ago, when all of a sudden my whole screen went red and there was a big warning sign that said my pc was infected and that I should go directly to the MICROSOFT website by clicking on this link. The page had a MicroSoft box and an icon on it - it looked completely authentic. But, I knew to never do that so I quickly closed the browser out, reopened it and went to MICROSOFT directly. I couldn't find anything here so I asked if they knew anything about this " red message" that came up on photobucket. When they answered me they said they had not heard anything - they thought I might have a virus and gave me some instructions and links but I had already done what they suggested. I also wrote to photobucket and asked them if they had heard anything like that happening with other customers - They just sent me a generic letter telling me to do stuff like clear the cache, cookies, etc... I had continued to look all over the net before I got their answers and found NOTHING.

I went back to photobucket 4 days later - nothing happened. I clicked off and went back in about 10 minutes later and this time after a minute a SMALL red box appeared with that same message. At the same time my anti-virus program popped up a message saying it had just blocked a TROJAN. so I went looking around again - this time when I googled the question a few sites came up with almost the same question without the mention of photobucket. they were tech forum sites where people were asking similiar questions about this message popping up. Some already had damage on their pc's. I had already been running full scans with both of my anti-virus/spyware programs and they said I was clean. I also ran a registry cleaning utility after i ran the scans. I had no problems with my pc.

I continued to look around the web and sure enough day by day there were more posts about it and now they were mentioning Photobucket. Then Photobucket writes me another email asking me all kinds of questions and could I provide a print screen? I wrote them back telling them no way was I going back to their site until this was fixed. Then by sheer luck the next day, I was looking in this other forum and somebody had actually copied the warning box and pasted it in his post. So I copied that and sent it to photobucket. they wrote back -  they were very grateful and were working on the problem  - which is now fixed. It turns out it was an infected ad on the site and apparantly if you clicked on the site that's what downloaded it. (I NEVER click on ads on any site so not sure how accurate that info is)  And it was a nasty virus too. Caused a lot of problems with their members - a lot of people lost their pictures or various albums. I guess I was lucky because it never got on my computer but also having 2 anti-virus/spyware programs on my pc helped.

Ironically it was only one of them that caught it - Norton - and I had just purchased that one about 2 weeks before all this happened!

From what some of you have described here it really does sound like a bad virus. If anyone is still having a problem and cannot do the fixes that are mentioned here - I suggest you take your pc to a shop or a an expert and have them fix it for you. Then get yourselves not one but TWO anti-virus and TWO anti spyware programs. At lease one of them should be a PAID SUBSCRIPTION. If both are paid that's even better - make sure they are reputable and well known companies like McAfee, Symnatec, Avast, Uniblue, etc... TROJANS and executable viruses are rampant more than ever these days on the web so instead of loosing all your data or worse your machines, spend a little money on some preventive protection. You wont' regret it. 

Of course, it's just my opinion....I could be wrong!