Why am I getting pop-ups on my computer???

Question

My pop-up blocker is on and working, and still shows me when some are blocked. We also have a spyware program on the computer that blocks them as well, but in the past two weeks we've suddenly started getting pop-ups! They're mostly ads, or even blank pages! Please help! It's so annoying!

Answer 1

If you don't have a firewall or spamblocker then you get popups.

Answer 2

Popup blockers, such as the Yahoo and Google toolbars and IE's built-in blocker, will only stop web based popup advertising. They can help somewhat but will do nothing to stop popups on a computer that is badly infected with trojan downloaders that are "phoning home" and contacting other computers to download and deliver the pop up ads. I believe that your computer is badly infected.

Try a full cleaning and dis-infection routine, if you are getting excessive popups, or are getting popups even when you are offline.

This is the one I use (it will take some time). These are on-line scans, you do not need to uninstall any of your current protections.

1. Scan for virus, worms, dialers, etc. and remove (free online scan) with BitDefender
http://www.bitdefender.com/site/home/

2. Scan for trojans, adware and spyware and remove (free online scan) with Ewido (now called AVG Anti-Spyware)
http://www.ewido.net/en/

Answer 3

Check the pop up blockers settings. Whenever the pop ups come up, start adding them to your restricted sites list.

Answer 4

No one product is foolproof so you may want to download, check for updates and run these in Safe Mode should you prefer. To get to Safe Mode, reboot your computer and hold down the F8 key while it is starting up. A screen will appear after a few seconds where you can choose Safe Mode. To exit Safe Mode all you have to do is reboot. You should also re-run your antivirus product while in safe mode.
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SuperAntispyware
http://superantispyware.com/
Spybot S&D (free version requires manual updating)
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
AVG AntiSpyware
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/20/lng/us/tpl/v5
Adaware from Lavasoft (free version requires automatic updating)
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
(These programs can be run in Safe Mode after installation and updating and you can easily remove them afterwards should you choose.)
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You didn't specify the type of pop-ups appearing. If they are Messenger Service pop-ups, follow these steps.
- Click Start and then click Control Panel.
- Click Performance and Maintenance. (If you do not see the Performance and Maintenance icon, you may be using Classic View. You can skip to step 3 below, but you must double-click Administrative Tools.)
- Click Administrative Tools
- Double-click Services
- Double-click Messenger.
- In the Startup type list, choose Disabled
- Click Stop, and then click OK

Reboot to ensure the settings stick. To see screenshots, you can go to the Microsoft page below:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/learnmore/stopspam.mspx

Answer 5

some pop-ups pass my google pop-up blocker too don't worry it happens to everybody pop-up blockers are not always 100% accurate but just be careful some may contain a virus or spyware

Answer 6

Download Spybot and/or AdAware and run these on your computer to make sure you don't have some of these Ad programs on your computer. Make sure to update them before you run the scan. The scans can take awhile. These can be downloaded free from www.download.com.

Answer 7

Could be Smitfraud or Vundo infection. Google for Smitfraud fix or Vundo fix.

This is also good: http://www.internetinspiration.co.uk/roguefix.htm

Answer 8

Happens to me allt he time. What kind of pop-ups are they like? like ads?