[1] McAfee claimed that "the primary function of the free version appears to be to alarm the user into paying for registration, at least partially based on false or erroneous detections.

[3] The WinFixer web page (see the image) said it "is a useful utility to scan and fix any system, registry and hard drive errors.

It ensures system stability and performance, frees wasted hard-drive space and recovers damaged Word, Excel, music and video files."

If the "trial" version was downloaded and installed, it would execute a "scan" of the local machine and a couple of non-existent trojans and viruses would be "discovered", but no further action would be undertaken by the program.

Because of the intricate way in which the program installed itself into the host computer (including making dozens of registry edits), successful removal would have taken a fairly long time if done manually.

[7] The company that made WinFixer, Winsoftware Ltd., claimed to be based in Liverpool, England (Stanley Street, postcode: 13088.)

According to the public key certificate provided by GTE CyberTrust Solutions, Inc., the server secure.errorsafe.com was operated by ErrorSafe Inc. at 1878 Hutson Street, Belize City, BZ.

[12] The virus generated numerous persistent popups and messages displaying false scan reports intended to convince users that their computers were infected with various forms of malware that do not exist.

When users attempted to close the popup message, they received confirmation dialog boxes that switched the "Purchase full version" and "Continue evaluating" buttons.

[13] Bleeping Computer and the syndicated "Propeller Heads" column recommended using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to remove Windows Police Pro permanently.

To help customers protect their PCs from malware threats, Microsoft recommends customers follow our Protect your PC guidance at www.microsoft.com/protect.On December 2, 2008, the Federal Trade Commission requested and received a temporary restraining order against Innovative Marketing, Inc., ByteHosting Internet Services, LLC, and individuals Daniel Sundin, Sam Jain, Marc D’Souza, Kristy Ross, and James Reno, the creators of WinFixer and its sister products.

[22][23] The article goes on to say that the WinFixer family of software was simply a con but does not acknowledge that it was in fact a program that made many computers unusable.