My friends computer also has popups every 5 minutes or so. He uses a popup blocker now. I never get any popups and I don't use a popup blocker or spy/ad/mal ware blocker/finder software. And yes, browsing porn sites does get you lots of bad proggies on your computer.

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Try the online killer
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

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much of these problems are avoidable. i know friends who are morons and they go to the same sites over and over again even though they screw their computers up. stick to respectable sites.

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I know I am beating a dead horse with this... but I havnt had browser problems like this since I started using FireFox.

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Very interesting indeed.

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I went trough all this topic, but i never saw the following workaround for the homepages:

in the shortcut where you start IE from add "-nohome" in the target field. This starts Internet Explorer with about:blank page every time, no matter what your home page is and no matter which addware or spyware has affected your computer.

The mentioned spyware removers can help but it is better to avoid getting that kind of unwanted software. The main suppliers of spyware and addware are porn and crack sites. Avoid visiting those sites.

Another solution against spyware is to change your browser after using an anti spyware scanner. Get yourself Opera 8.5 or Firefox. They are both free and don`t support Microsoft`s ActiveX Technology (nearly all spyware and many viruses are actualy ActiveX components).

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I can't believe this topic has gone for four pages and noone has mentioned Spyware Doctor! The security combo that I use is Zone Alarm Pro with Anti-Spyware, Spyware Doctor, and AVG Free Anti-Virus. In the last year of surfing the internet, my computer has been 100% up to speed and the only problems I ever have are unrelated to the internet. Believe me when I say this; my computer has visited some pretty bad sites and there has been no impact on my system at all!

A neat feature that Spyware Doctor has, if you have the paid version of course , is the On Gaird protection. As listed on the program, this feature includes:

Cookie Gaurd
Startup Gaurd
Exploit Gaurd
Browser Gaurd
IM Gaurd
Immunizer
Keylogger Gaurd
Network Gaurd
Popup-Blocker
Process Gaurd
Site Blocker

With On Gaurd enabled, there is real-time protection and my system has been protected well

I seriously recommend Spyware Doctor - it has worked for me!

http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/

 

 

 

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I don't know why, but this has always been an issue with me and IE. Over the years no matter what the program I use or even if I had a new computer, IE would open up and give me a random buggy page. Part of the reason I left IE to begin with and moved with FF. Can't trust IE if my life depended on it, but I suppose all of us have our own preferences.

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2 other ideas to consider:

1. just use firefox and never worry about IE's antics again.
2. remove the change privilege for the registry key that has IE's homepage setting for your user account. Even if you're a local admin the system will respect this (make it read-only for you, but maintain the system account full-control privilege)

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I never have problems with Firefox. Use FireFox or Opera and don't worry, be happy

Also don't go where malware is.

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