Pops Ups While Explorer is Idle

[Nitin]

Hello All,
I have a question which may have been answered here [I could not
find an appropriate thread].

Pop Up Ads start appearing on my laptop after IE has been idle for
60 seconds or more. These ads are from reputable names like AOL and
Home Depot as well as others that ask me to download a piece of
software. The ads do not appear while I am actively using IE.

I have a company firewall, the latest version of Norton Antivirus,
Ad-aware V6.0, and a couple of others that I have tried but none has
detected this particular file that triggers these benign pop ups
whenever IE is idle.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to find and remove the
software causing this?

Thanks,
Nitin

 

[war17]

1. If you have Windows Messenger Service, disable it. The Messenger service
is typically not needed for home users.

Right-click My Computer and click Manage.
Click Services and Applications.
Click Services.
Scroll down to Messenger and right-click.
Stop the Service.
Choose Disable as the Startup Type.
Click OK

2. Use Popup Stopper to get rid of the popups from the Internet.

http://www.panicware.com/product_psfree.html

3. Use the following scanners to find and remove the website.

SpyBot S&D searches your harddisk for so-called spy- or adbots;
http://security.kolla.de/
or
Adaware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
or
CoolWebShredder
http://www.spychecker.com/program/coolwebshredder.html

4. Some porn websites redirects links to their websites using your HOSTS
file. Do a search for the HOSTS (without extension) file and remove the
entry.

5. If still no joy, download HijackThis from Spywareinfo download page

http://www.spywareinfo.com/program/hijackthis.html

Run the program and you will find many entries. Most are OK. Post the log. I
will find the problem for you.

6. For future preventive maintenance, make sure programs cannot just
download on your computer without your permission. From the Internet
Toolbar, go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced. Make sure "Enable
Install On Demand (Internet Explorer)" and "Enable Install On Demand
(Other)" are unchecked.

 

[Mike Burgess]

Nitin,
How To: Deal with Unwanted Pop-ups
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/nopopups.htm
--
Go to: http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
Download "Hijack This!" [freeware]

Unzip, double-click "HijackThis.exe" and Press "Scan".

When the scan is finished, the "Scan" button will change into a "Save Log"
button.
Click: "Save Log" (generates: "hijackthis.log")

Next, go to the below location:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/

Sign in, go to the "Spyware and Hijackware Removal" section.
Press "New Topic", copy and paste hijackthis.log into your new message.

Post back with the URL where you posted if you want help with your log.
____________________________________________________________
Mike Burgess [MVP Windows Shell\User] http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 03-15-04]
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