Pop-ups with New PC

[Lloyd45]

I've just got a new PC, but I keep getting random pop-up message such as this one:



Anyone know how to get rid of them? Ive tried using Adaware, but with no luck

Thanks

[Miz]

That's XP's Messenger Service...which has absolutely nothing to do with Windows or MSN Messenger, by the way.

To disable it, go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services, scroll down to Messenger Service, double click it, set the Startup type to Disabled and click on the Stop button to stop it without rebooting. Click OK to save the change.

You might also want to go over to Black Viper's site and go through that list, turning off the services you don't need. Use the settings in the "Safe" column. It's a little tedious but well worth the effort in terms of system performance and online security.

[fudtone]

I wanted to bump this up for the simple fact I still hear about this alot.

Miz has offered the advice this question merits how ever if you head over to Black Vipers web site be very carfull with the advice he gives as it may not be what you expect it to be.

[Propain]

Black Viper is not bad but ya have to read the fine print.
Also what I noticed with DSL and XP , if ya set both XP firewalls (Network and Internet) to ON and ZA firewall, the popups are nonexistent. Well for me anyways.

[Jester]

get the google toole bar it has stopped all pop ups that i used to get. I liked it so much I convinced the computer security officer on base to put it on the computers and he did

[glc]

The Google toolbar does not block this particular popup as it has nothing to do with your browser.

[Miz]

Originally posted by fudtone I wanted to bump this up for the simple fact I still hear about this alot. Miz has offered the advice this question merits how ever if you head over to Black Vipers web site be very carfull with the advice he gives as it may not be what you expect it to be.

I'm not sure what "...may not be what you expect it to be" means. If you read the page and, if in doubt, use the settings in the "Safe" column, you'll be fine. I've used those settings on about a dozen new XP systems so far and never had a problem.

However, if Black Vipers services guide doesn't do it for you, try the one on TechSpot. The recommendations there are similiar (if not identical, haven't gone through them all) but presented in a different format some may find easier to use.