PCTech Forums

I have a Pentium II PC running Windows 98, with cable modem (Earthlink), Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus (2002). Recently, I noticed a lot of pop up ads (even when my web browser IE4 is not open) from various sites even though I have the NIS Ad blocker enabled and I also have Earthlink's popup ad blocker. I also noticed that applications were being installed in my c:\program files directory without any action on my part. Some perpetrators included, Memory Meter.com, Clock-sync.com, save.com, huntfly.com, etc. The strange thing is that although I delete these applications as soon as I notice them, they are re-installed sometimes within minutes of erasing them! I have run a full system NAV scan with no viruses found. I know something is happening in my PC since I cannot defrag my hard drive or complete a scan disk or Norton disk doctor due to some application running in memory (even after disabling NAV and NIS). Any suggestions?

they are probably programs called spyware. Many of us think of them as viruses, but because they do not actually do any damage to your machine, the anti-virus companies do not include them for deletion. What these programs do is gather information about the sites you go to and pass that info onto their servers so they can direct advertizing directly at you. You probably still want to get rid of them, so check out one of the two following programs

Adaware
Spybot - Search and Destroy

Both are excellent programs that will scan your machine for free to delete spyware. I personally use spybot, but adaware is a good program too.

If you want to double-check norton antivirus just in case, you can go to
http://housecall.antivirus.com/ and run the free web based service. I do this about twice a year, just in case a virus would get in and disable norton

Good luck

teststrips,

Sorry for the late reply but I wanted to thank you for your excellent advice. I did download both the Spybot and Adaware software and they have greatly diminished the popup ads. In my case, I think the Adaware software was more effective. I don't know if some damage has already been done but I notice that I still cannot defrag my hard drive in a reasonable amount of time - perhaps this will improve with time. Thanks again for your help!

Ninja21

Ninja

Do you close down ALL progs when doing de-frag, a good prog to use when closing down is EnditAll.

you should defrag in safe mode,reboot your system then press F8 just before windows starts to load.