Windows XP remove programs question

[Melissa]

Recently my computer began to run really slow, but there
is 43% of free space. There are the exact same pop ups
that appear every day, and my homepage keeps getting
changed, no matter how many times I change the homepage
adress. I went into my add/remove programs in my control
panel to see if something had installed itself. I found
33 programs called " windowsXP Hotfix KB821557." Each
program had the same title, but different numbers. Is
this a part of running windows XP, or is that the cause
of the pop-ups, and the continual change of my homepage.
If it isn't...what could be causing my homepage to keep
changing? I'm running Internet Explorer.

 

[dev]

/Melissa/ said:

Recently my computer began to run really slow, but there
is 43% of free space. There are the exact same pop ups
that appear every day, and my homepage keeps getting
changed, no matter how many times I change the homepage
adress. I went into my add/remove programs in my control
panel to see if something had installed itself. I found
33 programs called " windowsXP Hotfix KB821557." Each
program had the same title, but different numbers. Is
this a part of running windows XP, or is that the cause
of the pop-ups, and the continual change of my homepage.
If it isn't...what could be causing my homepage to keep
changing? I'm running Internet Explorer.

http://www.aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://WWW.MICROSOFT.COM/WindowsXP/expertzone/columns/northrup/restoreperf.asp