You may be the victim of counterfeiting...

I keep the this appalling and irritating message in respect of my copy of microsoft security essentials which resolves itself temporarily when I click the get the "get genuine' box. This only started to happen after I downloaded the beta version of Office 2010.
From what I can see, thousands of people are being plagued by this bit of corporate thuggery and various remedies are suggested.
I followed the steps recommended (downloading the legcheck file) but the warning keeps re-appearing.
I have seen fixes by deleting the wgalogon file in sys32 or making an amendment in HJT in safe mode (020 winlogon notify, click fix checked).
Can I take these steps though without making a rod for my own back further down the road.
Thanks
BY the way whilst typing this, the google page I had opened to check this problem out was hijacked by microsoft who opened their own page telling me what I could "Purchase" to overcome the problem!!!
Is this how MS reward their loyal customers?
By the way, I have checked my C>Windows>system32 and there is NO wgatray.exe file shown, NOR is there any similar entry in HJT!

 

In respect of my above message, I want to stress that to the very best of my knowledge there is no counterfeit microsoft product on my computer which is almost new.
With regard to MS products I have XP home which was installed by the supplier and I have the disk.
My version of Office is the beta version of Office 2010 which I downloaded from the MS site.
I have NOT installed any counterfeit product ( not for moral reasons, I'm just afraid of them) and this is why I am so annoyed that I am getting these messages.

 

I have never seen MS hijack a page or act the way you state. Have you run a FULL spyware check in safe mode?

 

Seems like a malware infection to me too.

Post your problem in Malware section.