Flash pop-up

[hightower]

I've been getting this rather annoying pop-up plaguing me. I've ran all the free utilities I can and still can't get rid of it. Any suggestions? It's got to be residing somewhere on my PC!

Andy

[Coops]

what is the pop up?

[hightower]

It's a search engine which seems to like specific web sites and sometimes looks like a turned down page or a red arrow in the upper RH side of the browser.

I've ran as many spyware programms as I can this weekend with out success.

I've just had to reload all my software after some hardware probs last week and I guess it's come in via the Java or shockwave downloads I did.

[Coops]

Well shockwave and flash player which now come from Adobe since they acquired them comes with Yahoo Toolbar built in to the download and unless you untick the Yahoo option at the time of download, it will install this option? Could it be this. If it is you should be able to remove it via add and remove programs.

I am racking my brain a bit though as the red arrow does not ring any bells.

[Nox]

de-install flash - the only thing its ever used for is advert anyway. And you get used to the nice green logo it gives you instead quite quickly :) Saying that, i've never actually 'de-installed' it - I assume its possible, I never click the 'install option' !

Nox

[Nox]

or...

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=flash+ ... 8&oe=utf-8 (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=flash+pop+up+killer&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

something there may work?

Nox

[hightower]

I've de-installed shockwave flash and the ads gone (thanks everyone). I didn't download the Yahoo toolbar, but a trojan horse managed to get in via an exploit with Java (which I've also uninstalled). I never had problems with Java before. Is this a new exploit with the latest version, or was it always there?

Andy

[Coops]

Pass mate on that, i have latest Java, Shockwave and Flash players installed and i have had no problems with pop ups or ads appearing when they should'nt. So cannot comment on that.

[Nox]

I do advise trying those online av programs occasionally - they seem to find stuff your normal av misses...

Nox

[asteroid]

you have spyware,

get yourself spybot search destroy from http://www.safer-networking.org

and this will remove this and other nasties in your machine. Essential and free app.

It high time to ditch the old security swiss cheese IE6 browser, do your surfing with firefox (http://www.getfirefox.com) and put on adblock plus extension, and you will never see a free ipod ad ever again :)

[hightower]

Tried it, didn't work!

After some hardware mods I'll reload all my software again.

[asteroid]

its not a hardware problem, dont see how it could be,

with spybot search and destroy, check to make sure you have the latest patterns

if you have a spyware app thats not playing nice and being a ***** to remove, then you need something a bit more harsh like "Hijack this" (google it, cant think off the top of my head where to get it) this will show a text file of your registery, you can then copy and paste bits of this onto the maker's website and the expert users can highlight and nasties and point you into the direction of some more specialist techniques for removal.

it might be a bit of effort, but if you do a reinstall of windows, you may get whatever it is again, so you might as well nail it - good luck :)