desktop popups

skyraider · June 20th, 2003, 11:05 PM

hey,
i've been getting random popups on my desktop. i had no programs open at all. i went somewhere for an hour and i came back with about 30 windows open, each advertising an annoying service, a horrible looking search portal, and one even had porn

.

right now as i'm typing, a discounted pills ad and counters ad are showing up. of course i have a window open, but i haven't noticed any popups on this site.

this seemed to be caused by the messenger service, which i disabled. that didn't help. i also deep scanned my comp with adaware 6.0 and removed all adware. that didn't help either.

the weird thing is that today, an annoying program called 2nd thought somehow located itself in C:\program files\SCT. all the popups occured after this program installed itself. my guess is that another user of this computer accidently clicked yes to a do you want to install this software ad. 2nd thought seems to do nothing but cause these popup ads. they have a website with a home page that says they strive to give you a second opinion while you surf, and that's about all it says. i think it's some kind of ad scam.

i removed that folder and everything having to do with it, but to no avail. so i'm getting all kinds of annoying ads when i have no programs open.

some system info:
windows XP home
ZoneAlarm regular
AdAware 6.0

doesn't spam want to make you can a can of the spam meat, put in on a rocket, and fire it at all spammers? i can't even type this message without getting 2 spam ad windows! help plz!

Atomic Rooster · June 20th, 2003, 11:11 PM

Download SpyBot and run that. It may find what Ad-Aware has missed. I use both on my system to make sure I don't miss a thing.

skyraider · June 20th, 2003, 11:32 PM

nope, i downloaded it, scanned, updated the program, scanned again, and fixed all the problems. i'm still getting popups

skyraider · June 20th, 2003, 11:42 PM

ok, now it's working.... hmm

well i guess it took effect or something, lol.... thanks!

Dsword · June 20th, 2003, 11:50 PM

download spy sweeper, gets everything Click Here . It works like a charm

skyraider · June 21st, 2003, 12:05 PM

turns out that i still have some ads popping up, maybe one every 5 minutes.

the sweeper works great! it already found something in the first few seconds of the search. thanks dsword

PonzSpyder · June 21st, 2003, 12:19 PM

The only way I get rid of them is by using my linksys router

it wont allow those messenger popups in.

They get really annoying though, I especially hate those popups telling you how to get rid of popups! How ironic is that, lol. If they actually cared then they wouldn’t send more popups at all.

skyraider · June 21st, 2003, 12:32 PM

yeah. shoot, i still get popups, after removing 18 pieces of adware too

AHHH! any ideas?

CERuppel · June 21st, 2003, 12:42 PM

Try listing your running processes for us (ctrl-alt-del...).

THinking along the lines of Gator myself, how about the rest of you?

no1_vern · June 21st, 2003, 12:49 PM

Hi Skyraider
Most likely you have M$ messenger installed/activated
"Windows XP, 2000 and NT have a built in Messenger Service that can be used by some Windows programs (and system administrators in a corporate setting) to display text-only alerts about your computer"

Go here:
http://www1.sympatico.ca/help/local/...messenger.html