Virus attack - a wolf in sheep's clothing

I've felt myself very lucky.  Over the years I've listened to friends and associates stories of having their computers brought down by this virus or that worm.  And I haven't had a single infection,  at least not one that actually got through my defenses.  And I do employ the basic common sense defenses such as local physical security, back-up software, and a good virus protection program.  So when I mistakenly answered yes to a request to update system security,  I wasn't overly worried.  I expected McAfee to kick in any moment and arrest the intruder.

The virus writers had done a good job, making it look like their software was actually going to do a better job of catching viruses and other meanies better than my current software.  But McAfee never kicked in and the fake security program showed obviously fake data.  When I tried to invoke McAfee manually, it blinked off the screen instantly.  There was no place in the fake software to minimize their window so not only could you not see the screen behind but you could also not shift program focus to any program save the fake one.  Trying to run Task Manager yielded the same results.  I restarted the computer only to find the virus program taking over at a crucial point.  I felt sick.

I made one last attempt using restart. Before even getting to Windows, this HP computer prompts for a recovery  option.  Before Windows had a chance to take over the machine, I was given a chance to restore our computer to a past checkpoint.  This checkpoint was only 2 days old - old enough to avoid the the virus but new enough to be current. Holding my fingers and crossing my breath, I clicked on system recovery.  After about ten minutes, I was advised to restart the computer.  It ran perfectly with no sign of my "friendly virus".  I was ready to whoop and dance around the room except that I don't whoop or dance much nowadays.