Windows Stupid, idiotic, moronic popup ads

I don't know WHERE I got this, but for some reason I keep on getting pop-up ads about every 4 or 5 minutes. It's really starting to tick me off! I can't get my Google bar back or re-installed and I can't find out where these ads are coming from. I don't surf porn, I don't download things from questionable sources and I don't open attachments from anyone I don't know. I've run Ad-Aware to no avail, it only found a couple of cookies and I'm at a loss. What can I do short of a full Windows re-install?

 

Hi there dad.

If you have a firewall revoke all rights of all programs. Then wait till the program wants to connect.

 

Dad, have you tried Spy Bot S&D yet? I know that some things that ad-aware has missed in the past, Spy Bot has found for me.

Also what djengiz suggested sounds like a good starting place too. I wouldn't have thought of that.

 

Well, after whatever it was decided to download some casino garbage I decided to do a quick backup of my settings and reinstall Windows. It's not too difficult as I have a disk image of my optimal install so it only took me about an hour... Now I *KNOW* it's gone - I just wish I knew where the hell it came from!

 

Reformat is the best way to take care of those kinds of problems. I know tech-heads that like to see how long they can go between formats, but I'm the exact opposite: I format on a whim, usually 2-3 times a year. I love a computer post-format; it runs so fast and clean and nice. All the crap is off the computer and you'll only reinstall stuff as you need it.

I give reformatting 2 dremels up

Of course, I keep all my vital info on a seperate HDD that doesn't get formatted

 

dad, do you use IE mainly?

if so shell out the 20$ for popupcop. it shuts down those awful ActiveX browser hijackers. and just about anything else you want it to.

use that and googlebar together and youll never see a popup again.

oh ya, and the newest versions of popupcop even kill those damn java eyelets.

 

I think AdSubtract is free and gets rid of activex popups

 

Well, I use Firefox for general browsing, but use IE for development as I have to make sure that all my pages display correctly on IE - don't ask.

I've never had any problems before with Google, but this damned thing, whatever it was, took over IE and killed the toolbar. I couldn't find what it was or how it got installed, but when it took it upon itself to download software from one of those online casino's, I formatted.

I'll have to check out that popupcop...

 

Unfortunately, what you experienced Dad, was the latest trend in pop up, spam, whatver you want to call it, it's an actual attack on your system, it takes over IE and does what it wants, selectively forcing you into certain places and into installing certain software to make teh creators and share holders money. It's going along side the spam hijacking like what happened to Kna.

It's really getting rediculous. Sometimes I really think about ditching technology and moving up north a bit into the woods.

 

You in Canada... you ARE up north

 

I did say only a bit I'm in the lower portion, we live in igloos, not ice caves.