The creators of rogue antivirus programs have to be good at knowing what people want. They know that computer users want reliable security programs, and they also know how to get users to click through to their links. With the use of worrisome programs, often disseminated on malicious sites masquerading as trending content, rogue programs like ThinkPoint create the illusion of security risks in your system in order to persuade you to buy their full program for protection.

Understanding ThinkPoint

To understand ThinkPoint, it is helpful to understand how rogue antivirus programs work. While they disguise themselves in endless varieties, they typically behave in the same manner. Their ultimate goal is to persuade you to purchase their "security" software. To do this, rogues like ThinkPoint launch a campaign designed to mimic security warnings. You will be alerted to the presence of viruses and Trojans that pose a risk to your system. It is important to remember that this is nothing more an elaborately-constructed ad campaign. These "risks" are not real, nor is the protection that ThinkPoint offers.

ThinkPoint comes bundled with the Microsoft Security Essentials Alert, a Trojan that mimics the legitimate Microsoft Security Essentials program. The rogue Security Essentials alert warns that your computer has been infected with Unknown Win32/Trojan. This program will run fake scans and issue pop-ups urging you to take action.

In addition to ThinkPoint, the false Microsoft Security Essentials Alert is associated with Red Cross Antivirus, Peak Protection 2010, Pest Detector 4.1, Major Defense Kit, and AntiSpywareSafeguard. The Microsoft Security Essentials Alert and its associated rogues are transmitted by a false Adobe Flash Player update

What You May Notice

One of the first signs you will notice that a rogue like ThinkPoint has been installed in your system is slower overall performance. You will see this when you boot up your machine, as well as when you attempt even routine tasks. The rogue is running resident in the background, diverting your system resources for its own use. Each time you start your computer, it launches into a false scan. One of the other telltale signals is the presence of pop-ups, which indicate the results of these "scans." It will tell you that ThinkPoint was able to clean several threats from your computer but that there remained corrupted Windows files, including taskmgr.exe, iexplore.exe, and firefox.exe.

Removing ThinkPoint as quickly as possible will help ensure that your system runs optimally and remains secure.