I browsed some of your other answers and this group rocks.

I have a pop-up ad that showed up one day and is very annoying, and
another that has been around for months and is not obnoxious, that
says it's from Dell?

The obnoxious one says it is from Symantec, and turns off my
Anti-virus and then says it's off and then reminds me to renew my
expired AV, and when I click on it as it offers to omit some MSN
redundant program, thus making it look like it comes from Microsoft,
it just comes back a minute later or so.

Opening up the Task Manager window by clicking Ctrl+Alt+Del, I noticed
two odd programs: symwscno.exe which had a zipped copy in the prefetch
drawer (I noticed when making a search of the name), and something
that came up as rundll32.exe and said it was "Run Dll as an App"
though maybe it was okay.

Anyway, I find that I can drag the pop-up to the bottom of the screen
and do fine, but since the program keeps itself active while running
virus programs like Spybot, my expired Norton AV,  Spyware Doctor and
Spyware Blaster, none of them seem to be doing any good.

(There is also a pest of a button on my Start Menu that claims to be
from Dell Solution Center, when I bought the computer from somewhere
else, and I suspect the real Dell would have made it so it could be
removed.)

Find me some way to get my system clean and win a portrait of noted
Federalist, Alexander Hamilton.

---

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 24 Oct 2005 00:01 PDT

scottyget...

Here's a solution I found for the Symantec Security Alert:
http://mcseworld.com/forums/search.php?s=dc671aec89b9de88c2fec8ae574d142e&searchid=51252

The Start Menu button may be more difficult to remove.
Is it in the very first section, along with Programs, 
Documents, Settings, and so on, or is it elsewhere?
If it's elsewhere, a right-click should bring up a
menu with a 'delete' option.

Let me know where this takes you...

sublime1-ga

---

Clarification of Question by scotttygett-ga on 24 Oct 2005 03:09 PDT

As for the Dell button, it's in the first section, second column, and
when I right click it, it doesn't give me any option but an expired
URL that says "Welcome to Dell." Shades of D's pronounced as H's,...

I'll check that link,...

---

Clarification of Question by scotttygett-ga on 24 Oct 2005 03:18 PDT

I couldn't get through to that link, sorry. The main page stops me.
Perhaps if you could post the search terms? Or paraphrase? Or not?

---

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 24 Oct 2005 12:01 PDT

scottty...

Sorry about that - I'd read the cached page and gave you the URL
for the live page. It's just a post where someone recommended
going to:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\
to locate the two files, symwsc.exe and symwscno.exe, and then
creating a new folder in the same directory and placing the two
files in it, so the program won't know where to find them.
Here's the cached page URL:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:mXOnDXTlLgkJ:mcseworld.com/forums/search.php%3Fdo%3Dfinduser%26userid%3D3577+symwscno.exe&hl=en&lr=lang_en

You'd probably need to end their processes in Task Manager first.

Another option would be to disable them in msconfig. Just type
msconfig in the Start -> Run box and hit enter, and go to the
Startup tab and uncheck the entries for these two files. While
you're there, you can look around for other unnecessary startups
like the Dell popup.

As for the undeletable Startup button, I can't get a good enough
feel for that from a distance, so I'm not sure what to tell you.
Maybe a separate question about that would be the ticket.

Let me know where this takes you...

sublime1-ga

---

Clarification of Question by scotttygett-ga on 24 Oct 2005 17:20 PDT

That's a fairly offbeat solution, hiding two files.

Because I had nothing better to do, I downloaded the latest free trial
copy of Norton AntiVirus (though it's dated 8/2004), and ta-dah! The
problem disappeared.

This was during the Installation, not a virus scan.

Something else it did, still, before any scanning, was block a worm
that's been intruding in my email program. Something called RASmin
Trojan Horse?

Although the solution you found would have worked, it looks like it
would only have helped in the short run?

Please quote this clarification in your answer, and I hope you will
display the Hamilton prominently in your sitting room. I also
appreciate the promptness of the reply.

scottty...

Thanks for accepting my work as an answer, even though you
resolved the issue another way. Here's my response, condensed:

------------------------------------------------------------

Here's a solution I found for the Symantec Security Alert.
It's a post where someone recommended going to:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\
to locate the two files, symwsc.exe and symwscno.exe, and then
creating a new folder in the same directory and placing the two
files in it, so the program won't know where to find them.
Here's the cached page URL:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:mXOnDXTlLgkJ:mcseworld.com/forums/search.php%3Fdo%3Dfinduser%26userid%3D3577+symwscno.exe&hl=en&lr=lang_en

You'd probably need to end their processes in Task Manager first.

Another option would be to disable them in msconfig. Just type
msconfig in the Start -> Run box and hit enter, and go to the
Startup tab and uncheck the entries for these two files. While
you're there, you can look around for other unnecessary startups
like the Dell popup.

As for the undeletable Startup button, I can't get a good enough
feel for that from a distance, so I'm not sure what to tell you.
Maybe a separate question about that would be the ticket.

------------------------------------------------------------

To which you replied:

"That's a fairly offbeat solution, hiding two files."

"Because I had nothing better to do, I downloaded the latest free trial
 copy of Norton AntiVirus (though it's dated 8/2004), and ta-dah! The
 problem disappeared."

"This was during the Installation, not a virus scan."

"Something else it did, still, before any scanning, was block a worm
 that's been intruding in my email program. Something called RASmin
 Trojan Horse?"

"Although the solution you found would have worked, it looks like it
 would only have helped in the short run?"

As to the last question, no - it would have lasted until an update
reinstalled the files. Additionally, the other option I gave you
for removing the Startup entries in msconfig would have been 
permanent.

As far as hiding files being offbeat, maybe - a little. A method
I more commonly use is simply to rename the offending files, say
to symwsc.ex and symwscno.ex for example. That has the same effect.

I haven't heard of RASmin, but if it's gone, no harm, no foul.
If you want to know more about it anyway, I can dig up some dirt
on it. Just let me know.

I will display the Hamilton portrait in a place worthy of it.
Perhaps we can work something out so I can obtain a complete
collection of this presidential series...  ; )


Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that  
the answer cannot be improved upon by way of a dialog  
established through the "Request for Clarification" process. 

sublime1-ga


Searches done, via Google:

symwscno.exe
://www.google.com/search?q=symwscno.exe

Thanks for the leads.

scottty...

Thanks very much for the rating and the tip!

Best regards...

sublime1-ga