Fun with malware.

I just recently got infected with the Windows 7 Antispyware 2012 virus, and man, they make these things nastier and nastier every time.

i'm pretty sure i contracted the the problem by accidentally clicking an ad banner, and then when avast popped up, i chose the wrong action rather than "open in sandbox" or "cancel opening".

After infection i could not:
-access msconfig
-open anything pined to the taskbar without it poping up and starting a new instance of itself (msv.exe win32)
-open any gadgets or sevendeskbar(dockable toolbar program for win7) without it popping up.
-could not open firefox without it being automatically pinned to the taskbar, for a nefarious reason no doubt.

Thankfully, i could still access the internet and find/download the fixes. I'm just finishing an anti-malwarebytes scan now to make sure it's gone.

I would highly recommend to anyone to copy your windows/system32/msconfig.exe, zip it, and put it someplace you'll remember in-case this or some other thing happens to prevent you from accessing it. (you can copy and paste it to the desktop and run it as administrator if your own msconfig gets corrupted)

Lastly, i'm adding some things to my security, as recommended by Penquingboy, all for firefox:

-disable java plugin
-install addon: flashblock plus
-install addon: adblock plus

Cheers, and Careful browsing to all, and to all a good night!
CT