Full story: (there's a shorter version at the end of the post)
I was installing drivers on two laptops this week for my friends (both were HP) and sometimes when I clicked on download it downloaded (edit: offered me to download actually) a "setup.exe" insted of the driver. The first time it did I actually didn't see it wasn't the driver and ran it, but it didn't do anything (as much as I know), so I kinda ignored it. Now I was downloading Audacity from their official website and I was also offered to download the same "setup.exe" (It always has around 250kB.) so I am getting suspicious that my PC got infected by a virus. Also, when I click cancel and try to download for the second time, it always gave me the right file. Did anyone get anything similar in the past?

TL;DR:
Sometimes when I try to download official, original stuff (HP drivers, Audacity - sites where it happened in the last few days) it offers me to download a "setup.exe". I click cancel and the next time I get offered to download the thing I was actually trying to download. E: Could my PC have a virus?

Yes your PC could have a virus.

Did you use any scanner to make sure? I usually get rid of most of them with Spybot and Malwarebytes Anti Malware.

I have AVG and Malwarebytes. I'm gonna scan (Confession bear: I didn't scan my laptop since I bought it and that's like for 4 months.) it today. I also have some boot scan software (I think it's from Kaspersky), I'll try with that if my main protection doesn't find anything.

Got exact same thing a year ago, was a virus. Just deleted it with an antivirus program (Norton) and it has never bothered me anymore.

Next time just download the drivers from the HP site, well organised and easy to find. Avoid driver managers or crappy websites offering drivers like the plague, which is often what they are. Generally there run by out of work nigerians.

It's probably from all the porn you downloaded.

Quote from Racer X NZ :

Next time just download the drivers from the HP site, well organised and easy to find. Avoid driver managers or crappy websites offering drivers like the plague, which is often what they are. Generally there run by out of work nigerians.

I was downloading the drivers from the official HP site. That's why it was so suspicious.

The malware most likely has to sniff the HTTP traffic and replace any request for an .EXE file with the request for the "setup.exe" you're getting. This is not a particularly easy thing to do so one of my guesses would be that it's just your browser that's infected through a bad plugin or something.

Well, my antivirus software removed 9 threats in total (4 or 5 were tracking cookies), so we'll se will it be okay now

If there is a chance that your Internet traffic was being monitored, you should reinstall Windows as a security measure. You never know what kind of information might the malware be distributing...

Honestly have no idea how people get viruses/trojans...

Ive had no antivirus for two years, still no issues lulz, and I download crap 24/7

Quote from aroX123 :

Ive had no antivirus for two years, still no issues lulz, and I download crap 24/7

If your pc is infected there is no red rotating light that comes on, most of the time you don't even know it's there. Wish the same could be said about some people.

Quote from MadCatX :

If there is a chance that your Internet traffic was being monitored, you should reinstall Windows as a security measure. You never know what kind of information might the malware be distributing...

I'll see if I notice anything weird and do the most appropriate thing. The biggest problem with the format of my HDD would be that I don't have anything to backup all my stuff.

Quote from matijapkc :

The biggest problem with the format of my HDD would be that I don't have anything to backup all my stuff.

This is the reason why keeping a separate system partition is a good idea...

There's only one solution. Get a Mac. They cannot have viruses.

But seriously, I haven't been using any AV for years, and not a single thing. It only slows down your system.

Quote from Klutch :

Honestly have no idea how people get viruses/trojans...

+1

Quote from Bose321 :

There's only one solution. Get a Mac. They cannot have viruses.
...

When the user has n00b mode ON, a Mac won't save him/her. Neither will Linux, xBSD or whatsoever.

Oh, maybe Chrome OS can do the job. You can do nothing with it anyway so you're always safe.
　

Quote from MadCatX :

This is the reason why keeping a separate system partition is a good idea...

I do have 4 partitions. But who said that the virus hides on the system partition?

Quote from Bose321 :

There's only one solution. Get a Mac. They cannot have viruses.

But seriously, I haven't been using any AV for years, and not a single thing. It only slows down your system.

I'd like to get a Mac so I could have something to laugh at when I'm sad
Maybe you just don't know you don't have any

Quote from matijapkc :

I'd like to get a Mac so I could have something to laugh at when I'm sad
Maybe you just don't know you don't have any

Well played sir. That's what I enjoy about one class in school, which is filled with iMacs. Hilarious to SSH it and let it make funny noises.

I run Spybot and Malwarebytes anti malware every now and then, with no results so far. So either it's clean, like I think, or a virus has invested that clears all results...

Thanks Wait for Dustin and his response: Macs work perfectly and never make funny noises...

I ran AVG and Malwarebytes and they did find a few. I think I'm gonna be fine for some time now. I think I should stop looking for TVE's porn videos on suspicious websites, that could also help.

Even after pressing yes on every god damn link on any porn site these last years, I yet have to be hacket / get a seriously crappy virus. Sure, was this virus which opened like 250 IE windows to different homosexual websites some time back, but that was just all jolly good and fun. Personaly meatspin and lemonparty are my favorites of the sites which poped up on startup.

Quote from matijapkc :

I think I'm gonna be fine for some time now. I think I should stop looking for TVE's porn videos on suspicious websites, that could also help.

Yeah, looking for that only gives you trouble... I usually use a Live CD with a safe Linux distro to not infect my whole home network with that.

On a serious note, did the problem stop after removing the virus or whatever?

Thanks for the advice TVE, watch out, as soon as I find that porn video, it's coming to this forum

I have yet to see is it gone or not. I'll know once I try to download a few things. I tried clicking a few links already, but none offered to download "setup.exe" so it might be over, but as I said, I'll see in the near future.

Use a USB drive portable browsery thingy and you can view TVE's lama porn with no concerns.

Try malwarebytes full trial version to be sure, then get an image of your c drive or at least back your stuff up.

Never trust your pc to work without either exploding or be riddled with NSA crap.
Clearly we're all such wonderful legal people here that the latter need never apply.

Quote from matijapkc :

I do have 4 partitions. But who said that the virus hides on the system partition?

Because any (serious) harm to your system can't be done on partition where you have your private nude photos for your homo boyfriend, that's why.

I never had virus on my PC, but I removed dozens of viruses from my gf's ntb, mother's ntb, simply everyone who knows nothing about PCs. And some of them needed a complete re-install, because all your passwords, stuff like that is in danger. And for example if u are using something like Steam, where you have say 75 games which cost you say 250€ you don't want to have a problem with hacked account. That's just an example.