popups slow my computer to a crawl

[MJ]

No matter which popup stopper I use (currently Popup Stopper Pro), popups still bring my
computer to a crawl. Sometimes I swear I'm sitting here for 30 seconds while the popup
gets loaded & killed. They are obviously still running client-side & only get closed
after they are fully loaded. This is a 267Mhz Pentium II. Is there anything I can do?
(besides disabling JavaScript - I tried that & found it makes browsing pretty
ridiculous) Otherwise this computer works fine for my purposes. It's just my browsing
experience that gets killed by these popups. Will a new computer really significantly
improve this situation? I'm running XP with all the updates. I do keep several programs
running all the time - Outlook, Copernic Search Tool, RealOne Player, & usually have
several (5 or more) IE windows running. TIA

 

[Shenan Stanley]

No matter which popup stopper I use (currently Popup Stopper Pro),
popups still bring my computer to a crawl. Sometimes I swear I'm
sitting here for 30 seconds while the popup gets loaded & killed.
They are obviously still running client-side & only get closed after
they are fully loaded. This is a 267Mhz Pentium II. Is there anything
I can do? (besides disabling JavaScript - I tried that & found it
makes browsing pretty ridiculous) Otherwise this computer works fine
for my purposes. It's just my browsing experience that gets killed by
these popups. Will a new computer really significantly improve this
situation? I'm running XP with all the updates. I do keep several
programs running all the time - Outlook, Copernic Search Tool,
RealOne Player, & usually have several (5 or more) IE windows
running. TIA

Clean up.
Popups are not the only evil.

Please Notice that if you use AOL, you should at least upgrade to 9.0 or
greater before doing any of the fixes. I know you can get AOL 9.0 at almost
any convenience store, gas station, super market or other retail outlet in
the world, so this should not be a problem. Also, if you are using AOL 9.0,
you will not be able to perform the first step in this list. You should
look into another solution, such as ZoneAlarm, for a firewall.


Turn on that firewall...
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/home/using/howto/homenet/icf.asp


Make sure you have all the updates (critical) installed from:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
(Scan for updates, Review and Install)


Get rid of the spy/ad/mal-ware..
(Yes - using MORE than one of these..
I recommend at least the first three. Also..
UPDATE the definitions for them before using.)

Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.net/

Lavasoft AdAware
http://www.lavasoft.de

CWSShredder
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Hijack This!
http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/

I also like "The Cleaner" and "SpywareBlaster" and "SpywareGuard".
- http://www.moosoft.com/
- http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

The first is a PAY product, but useable for 30 days - it has found and
eliminated problems in the past the others did not. The latter two are
prevention mechanisms. SpywareBlaster is a FANTASTIC free product, I
suggest getting this after you cleanup and keeping it updated as well.

Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner (Free!)
http://kephyr.sureshot.xaviermedia.net/spywarescanner/

ToolbarCop (Free!)
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/toolbarcop.htm

Browser Security Tests
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/BrowserSecurity/

And Assortment of Others:
http://spywareinfo.com/

ALSO - Be sure to IMMUNIZE after you clean up. SpywareBlaster and Spybot
Search and destroy both have these features - use both!


After you cleanup your PC somewhat of spy/ad/mal-ware, verify your antivirus
software is updated and run a full scan of your computer. If you have no
antivirus software - get one NOW! Grisoft AntiVirus:
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php


Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to about
80 to 120MB (seems to be an optimal size for the normal user)

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section,
do the following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the
"Amount of disk space to use:" to something between 80MB
and 120MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to
"Delete all offline contents" (the checkbox) and click
OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10 minutes or
more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer
- Re-open Internet Explorer.


Uninstall any software you do not use often/ever. (If you have something
installed but never use it, uninstall it.) If you go through Control
Panel -> Add/Remove Programs and see things you seldom if ever use, it is to
your advantage to remove it.


Also, if you are tired of Web Page Pop-Ups/Unders.. You could try the
Google Toolbar.
http://toolbar.google.com/


Stop loading applications at logon.. run MSCONFIG and look under the startup
tab for things you DON'T want to startup! Search the Internet with Google
to discover what things are safe to remove and what things may even be
malware infecting your computer.


Better control your email and lessen the amount of time you spend dealing
with SPAM:
SpamBayes
http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/
or
Spamihilator.
http://www.spamihilator.com

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

No matter which popup stopper I use (currently Popup Stopper Pro),
popups still bring my computer to a crawl. Sometimes I swear I'm
sitting here for 30 seconds while the popup gets loaded & killed.
They are obviously still running client-side & only get closed after
they are fully loaded. This is a 267Mhz Pentium II. Is there anything
I can do? (besides disabling JavaScript - I tried that & found it
makes browsing pretty ridiculous) Otherwise this computer works fine
for my purposes. It's just my browsing experience that gets killed by
these popups. Will a new computer really significantly improve this
situation? I'm running XP with all the updates. I do keep several
programs running all the time - Outlook, Copernic Search Tool,
RealOne Player, & usually have several (5 or more) IE windows
running. TIA

First eliminate any scumware.
See
Dealing with Unwanted Malware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other
won't. Also, each needs to be updated with the program's update function
before every use, even when just downloaded. There's also a lot more to do
than just those two programs. CWShredder is also available here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and CWShredder
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.

If nothing there helps, please post back to this thread.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

 

[MJ]

Thanks for responding. I forgot to mention I have a pretty fast DSL connection. I run
both AdAware and SpyBot S & D weekly. Is there a popup killer that prevents whatever
process is invoked client-side because that process is what is taxing the CPU (okay -
I'm guessing). I can usually bring up another IE window that is already loaded & read
that while I await the popup killer to do it's thing on the loading window. I can
instantly tell when I've clicked on a link that invokes a popup because that window
basically just sits there empty until the popup killer works - then the window loads.

 

[MJ]

Clean up.
Popups are not the only evil.

Please Notice that if you use AOL, you should at least upgrade to 9.0 or
greater before doing any of the fixes. I know you can get AOL 9.0 at almost
any convenience store, gas station, super market or other retail outlet in
the world, so this should not be a problem. Also, if you are using AOL 9.0,
you will not be able to perform the first step in this list. You should
look into another solution, such as ZoneAlarm, for a firewall.

Thanks for your response. I don't use AOL (& never will).

Turn on that firewall...
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/home/using/howto/homenet/icf.asp

Firewall is on.

Make sure you have all the updates (critical) installed from:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
(Scan for updates, Review and Install)

I'm completely updated. I use AdAware & Spybot weekly. Popups have always been slow to
load on this machine. Popup killers haven't made any difference - they still load - then
are killed. I was wrong about the CPU. It's a 350Mhz PII. I guess it's about time to
jump to a Pentium IV and see if that helps.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

No matter which popup stopper I use (currently Popup Stopper Pro),
popups still bring my computer to a crawl. Sometimes I swear I'm
sitting here for 30 seconds while the popup gets loaded & killed.
They are obviously still running client-side & only get closed after
they are fully loaded. This is a 267Mhz Pentium II. Is there
anything I can do? (besides disabling JavaScript - I tried that &
found it makes browsing pretty ridiculous) Otherwise this computer
works fine for my purposes. It's just my browsing experience that
gets killed by these popups. Will a new computer really
significantly improve this situation? I'm running XP with all the
updates. I do keep several programs running all the time -
Outlook, Copernic Search Tool, RealOne Player, & usually have
several (5 or more) IE windows running. TIA

Clean up.
Popups are not the only evil.

Get rid of the spy/ad/mal-ware..
(Yes - using MORE than one of these..
I recommend at least the first three. Also..
UPDATE the definitions for them before using.)

Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.net/

Lavasoft AdAware
http://www.lavasoft.de

CWSShredder
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Hijack This!
http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/

I also like "The Cleaner" and "SpywareBlaster" and "SpywareGuard".
- http://www.moosoft.com/
- http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

The first is a PAY product, but useable for 30 days - it has found
and eliminated problems in the past the others did not. The latter
two are prevention mechanisms. SpywareBlaster is a FANTASTIC free
product, I suggest getting this after you cleanup and keeping it
updated as well.

Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner (Free!)
http://kephyr.sureshot.xaviermedia.net/spywarescanner/

ToolbarCop (Free!)
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/toolbarcop.htm

Browser Security Tests
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/BrowserSecurity/

And Assortment of Others:
http://spywareinfo.com/

ALSO - Be sure to IMMUNIZE after you clean up. SpywareBlaster and
Spybot Search and destroy both have these features - use both!

I must point out that AdAware and SpyBot Search and Destroy (although
excellent products) do not remove everything. Some things CWShredder gets..
Some things HijackThis! finds. And you should also run SpywareBlaster and
iummunize your system (as well as using the immunize feature found in SpyBot
Search and Destroy.)

Your Temporary Internet Files size could be the issue as well, that was one
of the suggestions. The larger it is, the longer things will take -
particularly on a PII 267MHz. Shrink it down to under 200MB and clean it
out.

 

[MJ]

Thanks

I must point out that AdAware and SpyBot Search and Destroy (although
excellent products) do not remove everything. Some things CWShredder gets..
Some things HijackThis! finds. And you should also run SpywareBlaster and
iummunize your system (as well as using the immunize feature found in SpyBot
Search and Destroy.)

Your Temporary Internet Files size could be the issue as well, that was one
of the suggestions. The larger it is, the longer things will take -
particularly on a PII 267MHz. Shrink it down to under 200MB and clean it
out.

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP IE/OE]

Thanks for responding. I forgot to mention I have a pretty fast DSL
connection. I run both AdAware and SpyBot S & D weekly. Is there a
popup killer that prevents whatever process is invoked client-side
because that process is what is taxing the CPU (okay - I'm guessing).
I can usually bring up another IE window that is already loaded &
read that while I await the popup killer to do it's thing on the
loading window. I can instantly tell when I've clicked on a link that
invokes a popup because that window basically just sits there empty
until the popup killer works - then the window loads.

I hope you run the update feature in Ad-Aware and Spybot S & D before each
use.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

 

[Michael Trollan]

I've experienced this on every computer I've ever had that I installed
Google Toolbar on.
4 computers with google toolbar = slow after a month or two of use
2 computers without google toolbar = still fast

I can't say for certain that is the problem, but I'm starting to see a
pattern.
Does anyone have any other leads as to why this may be happening?

 

[Michael Trollan]

Further evidence:
I turned off the toolbar, and now popups come right up. I don't know
which is worse.