Annoying pop ups

[Killface]

My uncle keeps getting these popups out of nowhere telling him "Windows has found some registry issues and viruses. If you want to fix this, go to "www.iforgotthestupidwebsitename.com" and purchase the anti-virus program"

*I seriously forgot the name of the website haha*

I know it's a scam, and I had this computer problem before on my system.. I fixed it and was able to disable the popups, but it was so long ago, i forgot how to do it.

Does anyone have any ideas, or have they ever encountered this problem or a similar one before? It's kind of urgent... so ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks =]

 

[sub]

Start up in safe mode, kill the explorer process, do a scan in spybot, then ad-aware, then windows defender, then some other programs that you like. Reboot, see if it's fixed.

If you really want to clear your PC, reformat. If you don't want to go that far, sign up for an anti spyware forum, post your problem. They'll usually give you pretty good guides on how to clean your pc. Once your PC is clean, make him use a browser other then ie and tell him not to go to shady porn websites >.>. If you're smart about it you can avoid getting the spyware in the first place

 

[Grega]

Yea sounds like an addware problem to me.

 

[Killface]

Hmm.. okay. That was my idea at first too, but i wasnt sure if it would stop those stupid pop-ups.

Would disabling any browser helper objects work as well?

 

[Kaination]

WAAAAAAIT don't do anything stupid. Wait for me to post, I had a simliar problem fixed before. If you go into registry you turn something off.

Anti-virus's won't help. let me find the solution lawl

edit: Well, I remember someone on the forum gave me directions on going into your registry and disabling it manually, which fixed it for me. But wouldn't ya know it? Threads no longer here

I'll try looking for it, God knows how annoying it is.

 

[Mephisto]

I think alot of ppl have been attacked by Popups like that before.

the Program CCleaner has fixed it for me alot of times http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

 

[The Deco]

I use ccleaner too! If you surf the web alot or watching lots of online videos and not cleaning oftenly you might see ccleaner(crap cleaner) cleaning at least 1 gb of space. its awesome.

 

[sub]

WAAAAAAIT don't do anything stupid. Wait for me to post, I had a simliar problem fixed before. If you go into registry you turn something off.

Anti-virus's won't help. let me find the solution lawl

edit: Well, I remember someone on the forum gave me directions on going into your registry and disabling it manually, which fixed it for me. But wouldn't ya know it? Threads no longer here

I'll try looking for it, God knows how annoying it is.

Running spybot, adaware, and windows defender isn't stupid and certainly won't hurt. You should be doing that regularly regardless.

 

[Grega]

WAAAAAAIT don't do anything stupid. Wait for me to post, I had a simliar problem fixed before. If you go into registry you turn something off.

Anti-virus's won't help. let me find the solution lawl

edit: Well, I remember someone on the forum gave me directions on going into your registry and disabling it manually, which fixed it for me. But wouldn't ya know it? Threads no longer here

I'll try looking for it, God knows how annoying it is.

You nuts. IF you dont know what you are doing in the registry youll mess up your OS.

Go with what Sub said first >.<

 

[Kaination]

You nuts. IF you dont know what you are doing in the registry youll mess up your OS.

Go with what Sub said first >.<

I dunno, the one time I had that problem, adaware / spybot didn't take care of it, but once someone pointed me into the registry it went away.

But I can't find it anymore, sorry

 

[sub]

Kain, the chances of him having the same exact virus as you are astronomically small. Even if you found the registry that you changed, it wouldn't help him. Plus, as Grega said, someone whose clueless shouldn't be ****ing with the registry. If the programs don't fix the problem, post it on a site specifically dedicated to dealing with this ****, they'll give him detailed instructions on how to fix the problem.

 

[Skyrider]

WAAAAAAIT don't do anything stupid. Wait for me to post, I had a simliar problem fixed before. If you go into registry you turn something off.

Anti-virus's won't help. let me find the solution lawl

edit: Well, I remember someone on the forum gave me directions on going into your registry and disabling it manually, which fixed it for me. But wouldn't ya know it? Threads no longer here

I'll try looking for it, God knows how annoying it is.

http://archive.esforces.com/

 

[Kaination]

I'll let you decide what to do with this information. It's from Kurt. lul

http://archive.esforces.com/showthread.php?tid=13724

You are joking...

This is one of the oldest and most retarded oversights on Microsoft's part ever

Start->Run->"services.msc"

Find the "messenger" server, right click->properties on it, set startup type to Disabled, and click Stop, then click Ok.

Here is what is happening:

Infected computers/computers at a company are scanning random IP address ranges and sending Windows Messenger (nothing to do with MSN Messenger) messages to them. Apparently, you are not behind any sort of routing device (or you are and have all your ports forwarded, and you're not on SP2...), so their traffic is getting to your computer just fine.

I sincerely hope you did not install off of a pre-SP1 disc, because the average time for a < SP1 installation of XP to get taken over remotely is under 3 minutes now. You may want to reinstall behind some sort of device that won't allow external connections in (router, another computer with a firewall, etc), then:

1. Run Windows Update
2. Reboot
3. Go to Step 1 (repeat about 500 times)

... until Windows is fully patched.

 

[Deman]

oh! If it is a pop-up from the messenger service, then your uncle probably needs the service packs as well.

 

[Killface]

I'll let you decide what to do with this information. It's from Kurt. lul

http://archive.esforces.com/showthread.php?tid=13724

Yep. That's what I was trying to remember what to do. Good find Kain.


And thanks for all the help guys, but I got it fixed. Basically what happened is he got a pop up from a program called "windows antivirus plus" saying that his antivirus expired and he needed to renew it. He thought that it was a program i put on there from the last time i cleaned up his computer.. and since the program had the word "windows" in the title, he thought it was a legit product. Unfortunately, he was unaware that it was a virus, and "purchased" the software using his credit card.

I went over there, put the system in safe mode, went into the program files folder and deleted the folder called "windows antivirus plus". Then I ran some scans, defragmented the harddrive, and ran some spyware and smitfraud ****. Computer works perfectly fine now, but sad to say, the stupid program jipped him out of 45 bucks and now the credit card is under surveillance by the credit card company to make sure no fraud is going on.

I'm just glad he called me over there. If he didn't, im sure he would've lost alot more than 45 dollars. Again, thanks a million for all the help guys. I gots 25 bucks for fixing it!