I have a Dell PC with Windows Me that I "inherited" from a co-worker. 
Pop-up ads appear all the time while surfing, even sites that wouldn't
normally have them.  (one just popped up on Google Answers)  I can't
figure out what's causing this.  I've done a virus scan, I've done an
Ad-aware scan, I've checked the Start-up folder and the startup tab in
msconfig, I've gone through regedit and gotten rid of a bunch of
stuff.

Since I haven't had this PC from brand-new, I don't know what the
previous user has downloaded or sites she's visited.  I do know for
sure that she did download Morpheus and Kazaa, but I've already gone
through forums discussing the files those two leave behind.  I have a
slight suspicion it might be Weatherbug, but I uninstalled it and
can't find any other files related to it.

Here are what commonly pop up on the taskbar:
http://xads.cliks.org/ctx/web_context.php?urlContext=.....etc.
http://ad.trafficmp.com/tmpad/banner/itrack.asp?rv=3.0&id=.......etc.

One bar that only temporarily pops up on the taskbar has a typo- it
says "Micorsoft Internet Explorer" then it goes away.

Please help me end my misery.  The thought of this evil presence on my
PC is infuriating.

ed

Hello esarkissian. I am delighted to be able to help you rid yourself
of the evil machinations of these soulless advertisers. How do they
sleep at night?

Here is the best solution that I know of:

Go into your C:\Windows directory. Open the file called 'hosts' (no
extension) using notepad. Don't change anything that is in there..you
are just going to add some lines at the bottom.
 
Go to this URL: 
http://reckoning.org/news/?news_id=1333
and cut and paste all of the lines listed there onto the bottom of
your hosts file.

This list will block unwanted ads from many  servers. I would have put
the list here but it does have some adult servers listed too. Note
that both xads and trafficmp are listed. This has worked very
effectively for me and others. It will not only block pop up ads but
many banner ads as well! Of course if you like banner ads or for some
reason want to your browser to access some of these programs you can
edit this file as you wish.

If for some reason this solution does not work or you have problems
please let me know and I will do my best to assist you. If you need
more help use the 'clarify answer' button before rating this answer.
Thanks! -shiva777

---

Request for Answer Clarification by esarkissian-ga on 30 May 2003 11:37 PDT

Hi shiva,

thanks for your response.  Unfortunately, this didn't work....they're
still popping up.  But besides that, I'm more interested in removing
this "thing" from my PC rather than just blocking it.

Any other solutions?

ed

---

Clarification of Answer by shiva777-ga on 30 May 2003 12:02 PDT

Hello again. I'm surprised that that did not work. I also understand
your desire to totally eliminate this from your machine. It may be
complex as there may be multiple programs to find and destroy. That's
what makes the HOSTS solution so good.

I have to run out now for the evening and don't have time to give you
more solutions at the moment. I was going to suggest Spybot as the
next line of action which someone mentions in a comment below. Try
that and see how it works.  I will come up with some further solutions
for you to try tomorrow morning.

thanks,
-shiva777

You guys are complete geniuses!!!  I hope I'm not jumping the gun, but
it seems that spybot worked!  Die you ad scum!

Thank you all. (especially aceresearcher)

ed

esarkissian,

Try Spybot Search & Destroy.
Spybot Search & Destroy 1.2  
(donorware - free, but you can donate if you wish)  
http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download  

It is not identical to Lavasoft's AdAware, and the two programs
complement each other well for protection. I and numerous other
Researchers use both to keep our systems clean.

Best wishes,

ace

Download Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.2 (It's Free)
It removes many scum/spy ware programs that adaware does not, 
it all so "inoculates" your computer by permanently blocking them.

http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download

I had a program installed that set my home page to "xzoomy.com" and
constantly caused popup ads. I did search on google and found serveral
other people have the same problem and the resolution.

The culperit will be hard to find and probably lives in many places. 
And you have to get them "all".

So I suggest the "spybots" off download.com per the other comment.

I got one of these that I was able to catch with the WinXP task
manager.  I maximized it from the WINDOW menu.  In IE, I rightclick
and picked VIEW SOURCE.  This is what it is:


    <HTML><TITLE> Micorsoft Internet Explorer</TITLE>
    <BODY>
    <!-- saved from url=(0022)http://internet.e-mail -->
<BODY>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">

// Define these for your campaign
url="http://www.qksrv.net/click-968220-10289011";
width=800;
height=500;
scrollbars=1;
resizable=1;
ontop=0;


 
//
// Do not Touch anything below this point
//
window.blur();
x=window.open(url, "_blank", 
"width=" + width + "," +
"height=" + height + "," + 
"top=0,left=0,status=1,titlebar=1," +
"menubar=1,location=1,toolbar=0," + 
"scrollbars=" + scrollbars + "," +
"resizable=" + resizable);
 
if (ontop==1) {
   x.focus();
}
else {
   x.blur();
}
;
</SCRIPT>
</BODY>
    </BODY></HTML>

Unfortunately, I've got this same problem on a W2k system and none of
the techniques outline have found and removed the culprit. (found a
bunch of other crap but my problem remains)

The basic function calling the pop-ups still seems to be running on
some sort of timer, but because I updated the hosts file to block the
unwanted web sites, it won't actually get to the web pages it's trying
to display.

This all seems to have started within the last week. I noticed my
pop-up stopper going off even when I didn't have a browser open.

Now if my system sits idle, it'll try to open browsers, over and over.

I'm about to nuke this system, but would rather not. 

Anyone else got an idea on what's causing this?

dj