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IE Pop-up even when IE is closed problem. Help!

T

torrid

Senior member
Sorry,

I'm sure this is out there on the 'net somewhere, but it is such a difficult problem to search on. There are all types of pop-up problems posted out there, but this is different.

Completely at random I am getting Internet Explorer pop-ups even though IE is not open, sometimes 5+ at a time. In fact, I use FireFox so it is even more surprising. I've seen this problem once before, and know it can be fixed though I wasn't privy to the fix.

Has anyone out there seen this problem and know of a link providing a fix? I've updated and run both Spybot and Ad-aware, cleaning what I could find. I also scanned with Panda Antivirus Platinum, even though I have permanent protection enabled.

The problem just started today when I returned home from work. I suspect it has to do with a site my wife must have went to while I was away. The previous time I've seen this it was a site that was installing something when I clicked Cancel when it asked to install software on my machine, I believe. Again, this whole thing surprises me since my wife was using FireFox and said she didn't receive any pop-up windows (as I'd expect).
 
Originally posted by: ClueLis
Disable Windows Messenger
Click to expand...


Thanks for the response, though I think I've disabled Windows Messenger before. I removed those HIDE designations, however. Thing is, I'm not sure that these are Windows Messenger windows - they're IE windows opening seemingly random web pages and ad pages.
 
1st Run LSP-Fix
2nd Run CWS smartkiller removal tool
3rd Run CWShredder check for updates and run
4th Run Spybot search and destroy
check for updates and install them then Check for problems and fix problems, Reboot if prompted at the end and fix problems after it scans on boot up, then go into immunize and immunize it, block bad pages silently and check the boxes down on the bottom to prevent hijacking
5th Run Adaware
update it, scan and delete the problems found
6th Run Spyware blaster and keep spyware from being installed, update first then apply the new ones
NOTE: if spyware blaster fails to start, install this and this

7th for even more protection, try spyware guard, it functions much like zonealarm, except for spybots, with an item in your tray, and will help in real-time spyware protection.
NOTE: if spyware guard fails to start, install this and this

8th Make sure your AntiVirus is up to date and do a full system scan. if you have no antivirus, you need to get AVG, a freeware antivirus that some people say rivals NAV.

9th make sure your firewall is up to date (to test your firewall, go here and run shields up!) and if you have no firewall, you need to get zonealarm

10th check your IE explorer settings (Tools>internet options>privacy) to make sure privacy is set on at least medium and security setting (Tools>internet options>security) is likewise
 
I just fixed a friend of mines computer doing the same thing.

I ran AdAware and the problem was fixed. Make sure you have it updated when you do a scan and make sure you have it do a deep scan.
Also, I found that the homepage was changed on the settings. Change that as well before the scan, and make sure that it's still changed after the scan.

Wolfie
 
Originally posted by: Wolfie
I just fixed a friend of mines computer doing the same thing.

I ran AdAware and the problem was fixed. Make sure you have it updated when you do a scan and make sure you have it do a deep scan.
Also, I found that the homepage was changed on the settings. Change that as well before the scan, and make sure that it's still changed after the scan.

Wolfie
Click to expand...

As per original post, I had Spybot and Ad-Aware updated before scanning. I will be trying all of the other software Schadenfroh offered up above next.
 
Had the same problem recently... Neither adaware or spybot fixed it. Had to use an app I found via some discussions about this problem that I found on google.

Do you have apps with funny letters running in task manager (Aunl.exe, fdlkk33f.exe, etc?) - that's what I had. Used a prog called HijackThis (sp?) that lets you disable stuff that has hooked into IE. It's not the most intuitive piece o work, but it did the job!
 
Originally posted by: torrid
Originally posted by: Wolfie
I just fixed a friend of mines computer doing the same thing.

I ran AdAware and the problem was fixed. Make sure you have it updated when you do a scan and make sure you have it do a deep scan.
Also, I found that the homepage was changed on the settings. Change that as well before the scan, and make sure that it's still changed after the scan.

Wolfie
Click to expand...

As per original post, I had Spybot and Ad-Aware updated before scanning. I will be trying all of the other software Schadenfroh offered up above next.
Click to expand...

I must have missed the ad-aware. Tiz my fault. I know it helped the computer I was working on. 🙂

Hijackthis is a good program. This will even show you proccesses that are hidden. A nice program.

Wolfie
 
torrid,

I have the exact same problem. I have run Spybot and adaware with no luck. I will try the steps listed above but please let me know if you are able to solve the problem.
 
Originally posted by: waylman
I installed Firefox....and the pop ups are gone! Give that a try if all else fails torrid
Click to expand...

Keep in mind these aren't just simple pop-up windows while I'm browsing the internet. I use Firefox as well and receive none of those. These are hijacked windows that are using IE to pop up ads and seemingly random web sites (like eBay, for instance) to annoy me.

I went through all of the suggestions here and it seemed that initially nothing was fixed. However, I was working on my computer for about an hour late last night with no intrusions. Left the computer on all day at work today, so we'll see if there are 400 IE windows open when I get home. If so, I'll need more help. 🙁
 
Well, unfortunately I came home from work today with 48 IE Windows opened. It was ridiculous.

Does anyone else have an idea? I'm still not entirely sure that anyone who has experienced this problem has actually read this post yet, so I do have hope.

It's really neat when I'm playing a game (and only running that application) and suddenly it is interrupted because an IE window popped up and took the focus off the game. 🙁
 
Did you run HijackThis yet? This is not a windows problem. This is a spyware/hijack problem.

Did you do everything that Schadenfroh posted? You might be supprized. And, just because you removed the spyware once doesn't mean you won't get it back. Sounds like you have something installed that is giving you the problems...

Wolfie
 
Originally posted by: torrid
Originally posted by: waylman
I installed Firefox....and the pop ups are gone! Give that a try if all else fails torrid
Click to expand...

Keep in mind these aren't just simple pop-up windows while I'm browsing the internet. I use Firefox as well and receive none of those. These are hijacked windows that are using IE to pop up ads and seemingly random web sites (like eBay, for instance) to annoy me.

I went through all of the suggestions here and it seemed that initially nothing was fixed. However, I was working on my computer for about an hour late last night with no intrusions. Left the computer on all day at work today, so we'll see if there are 400 IE windows open when I get home. If so, I'll need more help. 🙁
Click to expand...

I was getting pop ups when IE was not open also. I could have nothing at all running on my PC and the windows would pop up. At this point, I installed Firefox and now the pop ups are gone. So you could try reinstalling Firefox. Or, why not try reinstalling IE?
 
Don't format yet -- you can always do that... (I've *NEVER* seen a computer so badly hijacked that it required a reformat)

Post your hjt log here and let us look it over. or cruise on over to spywareinfo.com for more help. They'll tell you to do what schadenfroh suggested, then post your hjt log for help, too, though...
 
I had some crap running on my system at home. No idea where it came from or how it got there and I work with comptuers so I'm not the type of idiot that clicks "Yes" or "Accept" without knowing what is happening. I ran Adaware and Spybot. Neither of them picked up the hooks in the registry or the .exe files they were pointing to.

I'll bet you've got some whacky stuff running in the backround. Try looking in the registry under "HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" and "HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" for hooks to suspicious programs. Mine had some stuff running out of the Common Files directory and directly out of the WinNT\System32 directory. If there is anything whacky there just delete the registry hooks and the actual programs they were pointing to and you should be fine.
 
Originally posted by: Robor
I had some crap running on my system at home. No idea where it came from or how it got there and I work with comptuers so I'm not the type of idiot that clicks "Yes" or "Accept" without knowing what is happening. I ran Adaware and Spybot. Neither of them picked up the hooks in the registry or the .exe files they were pointing to.

I'll bet you've got some whacky stuff running in the backround. Try looking in the registry under "HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" and "HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" for hooks to suspicious programs. Mine had some stuff running out of the Common Files directory and directly out of the WinNT\System32 directory. If there is anything whacky there just delete the registry hooks and the actual programs they were pointing to and you should be fine.
Click to expand...


Thanks, everyone.

I just looked in "HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" and found this guy:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\PSD Tools\blengine.exe

I'm thinking that can probably go.

I'm also not sure about this one:

C:\Documents and Settings\Barry\Application Data\nrpe.exe

The stuff in "HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" didn't look quite so suspicious.

Additionaly, upon a friends' recommendation, I removed a file from my C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files directory that was named basically with a mish-mash of letters and numbers. This is the friend that helped me fix the problem when I had it at work about 6-10 months ago.

Anyway, we'll see if these couple of tweaks solve my problem...by tomorrow I should know. Hopefully this thread will help some other people when they run across the same hijack. If the problem persists my HijackThis log will be put out here.



 
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