I have a popup ad horror story to share.

   Earlier today I was visiting some site (I don't remember where it was) and a big window popped up with an ad for an anti-spyware program.  I closed the window and went on looking at the site.
   Later, when I opened Internet Explorer, my homepage had changed to the same anti-spyware ad.  That got me a little annoyed, but I went ahead and changed my homepage back.  As soon as I did this, a zillion new popups appeared, including a full screen ad for an adult site.  Then, to make things worse, my homepage was changed to that anti-spyware ad for a second time! 
   I think I was able to pull myself out of the loop now, though.  I'll have to run my anti-spyware program tomorrow to make sure it didn't put anything on my computer. 

NO respectable site would run these invasive pop ups & change your browser home page. Exactly the same thing happened to me when I was visiting a hacker, porn or cracks site - so I don't visit those sites anymore. I had to reinstall IE to remove the damage they did.

I wonder if ANYONE has ever thought "Oh WHOOPIEEE! - my browser home page is now HotTeenSluts.com & I didn't even have to do anything!!! " 

I would guess the result of their actions is 100% aggitated users who swear NEVER to go there again...  8)

The Google Toolbar is a free tool that you can set to block pop ups.  Very, very handy little utility.  Available at google.com

Go out and buy Pop-Up Stopper Pro by Panicware. It's a really good stopper program. I got my copy for free from my computer guy but you can download it online for $29.95 US.

Another good program is Window Washer 4.8. It removes cookies and spyware programs, temp internet files, temp file, stuff in the recycle bin and other useless junk off your computer. It's made by Webroot and is a little more expensive than Pop-Up Stopper at $39.95.

You can take a look at them here.
http://www.webroot.com
http://www.panicware.com

JUst be careful with Ad-Aware...I ran it on my computer for the first time awhile back, and it found a file and removed it like its supposed to...next thing I knew windows wouldn't boot up without giving me 1'0-15 error messages everytime! Just be careful whatever you do!

Jared

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Ouch!  Sounds like popups these days.  lol

I'm not sure if I should get a popup ad remover.  I've heard that they also get rid of some of the "good" popups too.  Does anyone know if that's true?

Hyperion wrote:
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I have Ad-Aware too. 

Ah, ok, I'll have to check it out.  Thanks! 

  There are quite a few free pop up blockers, just search google, or as Hyperion suggested, you can get the google toolbar.

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  A lot of the stuff that Ad-Aware searches out on your system is spyware that has been imbeded in critical files on your system.
  Once Ad-Aware has done its thing, you should only quarantine the files it finds unless you know for sure it is safe to delete them, in quarantine the spyware is useless to the scum that put it on your system in the first place but the critical files still are able to do their jobs.