Pop Up Adds

[Jon]

Help, they are driving me insane. Recently I started getting all kinds of pop up adds and dialers. Whenever I come to NVNews for example I get an offer of a motorbike game for my mobile phone if I click yes to download the software!!!

I have used Adaware which found nothing, Spybot which found nothing and Norton Antivirus found nothing!!! I am getting pop ups everywhere, google, yahoo, nvnews!

Anyone got any suggestions?

I don't know if its coincidence or not, but I recently used the web update for NFS: underground. A window opened asking is I'd like to install something like patchvs or something like that from Electronic Arts. So I clicked yes. I didn't have a problem until then.

[Smokey]

Start using firefox!
The way I found where these things hide on other peoples pcs, was to load windows in safe mode, go to program files folder on c: and check each folder, as I dont remember the name of it, you will see something like 3-5 .exe files. Right click each .exe and deselect any of the little boxes checked and click ok, then delete them all. Then reboot.

The way I found these, was once after I had just installed windows, I hadnt installed firefox yet, as I was doing all the windows updates first, and after a reboot I opened task manager to see what programs where running. Before I had even conneced to the internet or opened any programs, there was 2x ieplorer.exe

[MUYA]

hmm that is something that shouldn't be happeneing as we don't have to my knowledge any pop ups ads!!! ie IE or Firefox!!! Hmm Maybe MikeC could comment ont his but I am sure we dun have pop up ads..only things thatpop up is the Private messages windows if u have enabled that in the forums

So i dunno bud, get ad aware and scan the bejsus out of yer system.

[Riptide]

Sounds like he's got an infestation. I'm surprised adaware and spybot find nothing. Are you using the latest definitions for each program?

You can download the google toolbar and turn the popup blocker on with that or alternatively download XP SP2 and use the built-in popup blocker with IE. Or better yet just switch to firefox or opera. :)

[jAkUp]

run msconfig and disable all startup apps first...

[Smokey]

What I mentioned, hides behind IE, and spybot doesnt pic it up, I originally traced it back via my firewall, by having my firewall tell me when one app was trying to launch another. The pop ups that he is getting from nvnews isnt from nvnews. Click on desktop in windows explorer, and see if you have any short cuts to, travel, casino, games, internet etc. also has your home page been changed?

[Jon]

Aaaaaargh... they are still driving me insane. I have rescanned with Adware and Spybot and made sure to update the definition files... but still nothing is detected. Have checked every .exe on my c drive and can't see anything out of the ordinary. Unticked everything in startup with MSconfig and still get them. My settings appear to be unchanged (links, home page, favourites, etc).

I am just looking through my running process list, no IExplores other than the one I have open... just killed off something called SAgent2.exe ... although this is supposed to be to do with Epson printer drivers. I'll see if it solved the problem though.

I know I can use a pop up blocker, but I am a little concerned that it could be doing other things besides displaying popups and want to track down the cause.

[Jon]

Hmmm, not sure if I found it... but there was a process called ATIUpdate.exe. Searching on google suggests its a popup / dialer downloader. I thought it strange since my last 4 graphics cards have been Nvidia. I haven't had any more pop ups since I killed it (yet). I managed to find the .exe in Documents and Settings\Local settings\temp... (it was hidden) I assume deleting this file will remove it, but how can I find where it was being run from?

[Smokey]

Sounds like you found the sucker :thumbsup:

I agree 100% these things are a major pain in the butt, the makers of them should be hung up by their gonades!

[ClosetFanBoy]

this guide is pretty good. i use it when my ie gets all messed up. points you to some good free tools and shows you where alot of this crap hides. the link to cwshredder seems borked, but you can find that at majorgeeks.com or just do a websearch for it. anywyas check it out and goodluck.

Junkware 101 (http://www.overclockinghq.com/articles/junkware1.php)

[majortom]

here, try this:
1. turn off and unplug your pc
2. throw it out the window (or trash)
3. buy a new comp!
problem solved. youre welcome.

[Son Goku]

Have you updated to the lattest Adaware SE (1.05 now) and updated all your definition files and what not?

As far as popups go, I've used Proxomitron (which I still am). Was very good in it's day, and though I still don't tend to see popup ads, some other types which it used to block are now getting through.

My thinking is as such. They stopped producing/updating proxomitron about a year ago or so. As such even though it was really good at blocking ads back in it's day, advertizers have since started to find ways around it. Not sure about another app though, and I wouldn't really want it to be less functional then what I had. Not sure what I would recommend now.

[Denroll]

AdSubtract and SpySubtract work fairly well, but they aren't free.

[FastM]

This is a job for Highjack this (http://www.magickrypt.com/matt/HijackThis.exe)

Remove anything that looks like it shouldn't be there.