Some strange malware that I can't figure out

[tuffluck]

so i downloaded a program a while back and was in a hurry. nothing wrong with the program but you know how a lot of times there will be an ad right besides the download box that looks the same as the real download box, but is really just some bogus pc software that is malware? yeah i downloaded that instead...

anyway, ever since it's caused some strange (albeit not overly annoying) malware, but malware nonetheless. basically when i click on links a lot of times a new browser pops up with a survey or a gift card to that particular site (even though all the gift cards for every site look the same), plus an above average number of extra ads on every webpage. i've run superantispyware and malwarebytes and neither of them can find the source. any help?

 

[Pardus]

comment removed

 

[C1]

Some ad tracking comes via google searches. How the ads would know me even when I worked from different IPs was a mystery since I use "Smart Restart" (ie, ie, everything is reset upon re-boot). So I changed my computer's name and now I dont see those same ads any more. So for kicks, change your computer's name (its easy to do, but requires a re-boot).