At my wits end with bloody pop ups!!!!!

[Broadkipa]

I have to say that if I had the person who programed the virus or whatever it is that is causing these pop up to constanly apear on my sons PC then I would be quite happy to slit his throat.To say that it is driving me mad is gross understatement. I don't know what else to try. I have:
dissabled messenger in services,
run AVG anti-virus checker......nothing,
run Adaware.........nothing
run MSCONFIG and checked startup programes....nothing
checked startup folder in program group.......nothing
gone through the registy by hand and deleted anything that looks like it maybe the ofending key.....nothing
deleted some items in the root directory that I couldn't see should be there,.....and still they appear.
Now I am not a newcomer to PCs, I have built 8 so far and overcome many problems over the years but this one has me stumped.
I just know that I must be missing something obvious but I can't see it.
All I can say is when these adverts appear,Iexplore appears in task manager, so somehow Iexploer is starting by itself. The ad windows do not have the exploer icons at the top, just a plain box.
If you try to play a game then the pop ups jump you back to the desktop every time or lock up the game so you have to exit. The only way to stop them is diable the network connection.
This post is my last attempt at to get to the bottom of this as my next step is to reinstall XP.

PS If the stupid sod who wrote the code is reading this then for your own wellbeing, STAY AWAY FROW THE UK BECAUSE YOU ARE A DEAD MAN.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Look through Add/Remove Programs just to be sure there's nothing there. Remove anything that you know to be ad-supported software.

Turn off any programs running in the system tray. I assume you're not running anything like Kazaa or Morpheus.

Look through the Task Manager process list and see what may be running that shouldn't be (provide a list of everything if you're not sure). If iexplore.exe is starting up just when the computer is sitting idle with no programs running, then there has to be something running to start it up.

 

[Broadkipa]

Thanks for the reply, firstly I have done the add remove bit, There is nothing like Kazaa or Morpheus running.
what I will do is do a list of everything in task manager to see if anyone can spot something.

 

[Green Man]

Have you tried a pop-up blocker? I don't have a recommendation of a good one, maybe someone here has a favorite. I googled and found Stop The Pop (free)

 

[Broadkipa]

Thanks for the link, I will give that a try. I have downloaded the beta ver to see if that can do the trick.
My son is watching a film at the moment so I will try it tomorrow.

 

[Bacinator]

Not preaching the product:
But ZoneAlarm is a firewall, and tells you when stuff is trying to access, or get access from you system. Really awesome firewall/software package all in one.
But anyways, there is a privacy tab that allows you to block pop-ups and cookies, and has settings for each.
I have mine set to "Block pop ups that do not display within 0 seconds", which takes care of most of em. I could turn em off completely, but hey, I like to see some ads here and there.

 

[dmk11]

Try Regcleaner and Spybot

 

[Kartajan]

pop up killer:

AnalogX pow! <<FREE>>linkage


all in one solution:

Norton Internet security; enable ad blocking <<BUY>>


edit: added link...

 

[Lord Evermore]

I believe most popup killers will only work to stop popups that are initiated by a webpage. If an application is opening IE and sending it to a URL, a popup blocker won't stop it, since it isn't a javascript popup or other form of making a new browser window from a current one.

 

[eplebnista]

Pop This!

 

[dmcowen674]

Also check the win.ini file. Many times an .exe file is placed in the run or load line at the top that starts the Pop Ups.

I agree, this is the sort of thing they should be using Hacking Statutes for. That Computer has been technically hacked.

 

[Rpower]

Also try running ad-aware (www.lavasoftusa.com) or spybot (spybot.eon.net.au ).