Computer Troubles...

[grindylow]

Does anybody else get lots of pop-ups that try to take over your computer? Cuz I get sooooo many, and my Google toolbar has blocked 179 181 in the past few months. Grr... Things have been installing themselves on my computer too. Like yesterday when I opened up Internet Explorer, something had changed my homepage again to some random pop-up/porn site, and it kept telling me I could only click "ok" if I was over 18 years of age and stuff, and obviously I didn't click it, cuz I'm not a pervert, but then when I turned my computer this morning, and there were 3 new programs on my desktop, including this "Second Thought" thing, which was what the whole "ok" thing mentioned above, and it's some sort of porn thing, but I don't know how to get rid of it!!!

Grr... I went to my Change or Remove programs thingy, but they don't have the same names and stuff, and some things have really random things, so I never know if they're things I want on there, or things that I really don't, and it's bad. And then when I try to uninstall these random free AOL things, it takes me to their website or something, and then it freezes and refuses to close. ARG!!!!!!!!

Does anybody else have these problems/know what to do?

[orlandobabe726]

I used to have those problems. I downloaded popswatter, and it fixed it.

[Ginny Potter]

Yeah, I get those when I try to open a new window...that click if you are over 18 thing, does it have a picture of a red haired girl wearing a green sweater?

[grindylow]

Umm...I don't remember...I don't think so though. It just really bugs me. And then those spyware things that do weird things to you comp, like opening your CD-ROM drive thing or whatever...

And we have Norton Anti-Virus, and I have the Google Toolbar thing, but I still get soooo much. Our other computer doesn't get much though, and it's the same internet thing, cuz they're connected or somethign, so it's just really weird.

[PetitePirate]

Ginny said:

Yeah, I get those when I try to open a new window...that click if you are over 18 thing, does it have a picture of a red haired girl wearing a green sweater?

omg, my computer was doing that!

[¡Snowy!]

i think after we got norton it stopped, but now we have Bit Defender. we dont get any more popups, not unless i click on a link that has one automatically attached, otherwise not the stuff that pops up at random.

[Ginny Potter]

PetitePirate said:

omg, my computer was doing that!

yeah, i get it all the time...

[danielkvc]

I have the habit of formatting and reinstalling everything on my PC about once every 3 month, that keeps the worst trouble away and wipes out all that sh*t that installs itself on your computer

[Dienne Herlsif]

A combination of Spybot and Norton or McAfee should take care of things. It's very likely that crazy-mad popups are caused by spyware, which Spybot is great at killing. Things to watch out for to prevent getting spyware are sites with lots of popups and any sites that ask you to download something that you dont recognize. Like, anything that's not Microsoft, Macromedia, or another brand name that you trust.
And be uber-careful using pirating software like Kazaa.

DYH