A program keeps telling me to download their virus protection in pop-up bubbles…how can i make it stop?
January 31st, 2011 Filed under: Internet Advertising Company — Advertising Author
scottie2hottiethedog10101 asks the question: The software they want me to purchase is Antivirus PC Suite. Some other software “companies” have also been constantly warning me that my computer is infected with “malicious” spyware and they keep directing me to their site to buy their software. The programs are running in my system tray, located in the lower right corner of my computer (right by the clock). Every time I right-click on them in hopes of pulling up a menu to close them or quit the programs, they direct me to their site. Sometimes I can come back to my PC after a few hours and find 27 Internet Explorer windows opened because of so many pop-ups trying to get me to buy their software. I tried using a pop-up blocker but they also advertise their own pop-up blockers and always get around mine. I am certain that something recently installed on my computer is causing this. How can I delete these programs?
Answer:That, my friend, is adware. Pop-up blockers don’t usually work against adware because the two methods of producing the pop-ups are different.
I suggest you download Ad-Aware SE and Spybot S&D (theyâre free), install them, update them and run them. If they don’t seem to be able to get rid of everything they report finding, try running them again, this time in Safe Mode. Safe Mode prevents many instances of malware from loading and protecting themselves against deletion of their files.
Also, turn off System Restore to evict any copies of bad stuff that might be lurking there.
To get into Safe Mode:
1.Log out and reboot your machine.
2.When the machine starts the reboot sequence, press the F8 key repeatedly.
3.Select Safe Mode from the resulting menu.
4.The machine will continue booting, but the Windows desktop will look different. You won’t be able to see the Internet, for instance. You may have to log in as Administrator to delete the bad files. Administrator often has no password.
5.When you’re finished, log out and reboot back into normal mode.
Update and run both regularly, along with a good anti-virus package.
Good luck.(Security)
