Annoying Pop Ups in XP

[danny]

Hello Everyone

I am using XP Pro with IE 6.0. I downloaded by mistake a "downloader" file from the internet. I realized after extracting it that I didn't want this on my machine and deleted it. Unfortunetely, it left me with a few pop ups which occur wanting to connect to the net and download another program to get me connected with XXX sites. I have checked the startup menu and could not find anything there. Can anyone tell me where to go and remove this "download request"? Thanks

[DrZaius]

Hi danny,

Run msconfig and check for anything in startup there, it may have been added to the registry.

[TheOldMan]

Hi Danny,

Sounds like you picked up some spy-ware or scum-ware. You can use AdAware from LavaSoft to try and remove it. Try this site http://www.pcmedixwebs.com/spyware.htm
for some good information and free tools for removing these pests.

You can also use TweakXP (the XP version of TweakUI) from TotalIdea http://www.totalidea.de/. You can download an eval copy (50 uses). It has a pop-up blocker that works quite well. BTW the 50 uses counts the number of times you open the application configuration. I've been using it since October and only needed to open it 4 times. The 50 uses can almost last forever.

Good luck.
The Old Man