Pests, unwanted downloads, etc.

[Bill]

Ever since I downloaded Internet Explorer SP1 I have been
inundated with unwanted pop-ups, programs (last one was a
casino program) that place icons everywhere. I ran a pest
program as well as Norton's security professional. They
found alot of files containing problem codes and deleted
them. A couple of the questionable files wouldn't delete.
Is there any way of stopping this intrusion?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Ha! easy problem.. spyware! (arg I hate that) Its probably since those programs you got only worked with IE6 (or something like that) so once you upgraded they became active... anyway.. download Ad-aware 6 AND Spybot - Search and Destroy (1.3) from www.download.com (get both of them!)... (they're both 100% free and working) be sure to update them and run them, restarting your computer afterwards. Everyones gotta have a spyware removing program today... with the increasing spyware problem. Also, unless you have some objection because you have some toolbar that you like.. you can disable any 3rd party browser extension (which I recommend unless you have a toolbar you like..) in Internet Explorer.. click Tools.. then Internet Options.. then Advanced.. and UNcheck "Enable 3rd party browser extension" and restart IE.. thx for reading.. hope this help
-Jonathan

 

[I Love Bama]

If they're really annoying, pay the $30 or so for licensed version of Ad
Aware and it'll run like an antivirus program and block the stuff in real
time. No need to clean it up; it won't ever land.

http://www.lavasoft.de