Pop-ups - Mozilla Firefox McAfee - "virus alert!" etc -Are these MALWARE?

This is Malware, I got that last week when signing into online shopping, my way out was to resize the screen and use task manager to close the browser. I had forgotten to enable my Hosts file so that's how it got in, from a stored cookie. One way to avoid this nuisance is to set browsers to clear all cookies when closing, it means logging into sites every time, but it's better than this malware messing you about.  Malwarebytes is handy to have installed as it refuses to go into dodgy sites, although sometimes it gets switched off, so a Hosts file is a must to have enabled as well. Some freeware has this ability to call in these malware messages as well, to try to get you to buy Antivirus software, I use Malwarebytes and Windows defender plus a MVPS Hosts file which I update from time to time that seems to work, although I have to stop the Hosts file sometimes when searching as it blocks too many sites, so long as I remember to enable it again after I complete the searches, all works OK

PS refuse online pop up surveys as this third party software can put unwanted stuff on your PC.

I have often used firefox and not had virus popups, so more than likely something out of the ordinary. I also use malwarebytes pro alongside windows defender and find the protection good.

One thing I found this week was unusual, I was virus checking an old external hard drive, which had been previously scanned using avast or avg antivirus, however malwarebytes now has AI detections which found many incidents of missed virus detections including one called the Foxif.virus which was quarantined and dates back to 2017 and can download malware, it was found  in an old version of windows I had stored, and therefore was hiding as part of windows winSxS wow64;microsoft-windows.

It pays to have good antivirus software and do regular scans, but worrying the virus was not spotted previously as I am always doing virus scans, so I probably had some infections in the past on my computers and external hard drive without knowing at the time and the external drive dates back to 2014.

Computer infections can result in leaking of data, hacking etc.of accounts.

I also ignore the many spam emails to my ntlworld .com email saying my antivirus has expired.