Eliminate Those Pesky Pop-Ups Once And For All!

Tired of those pop-up ads all over your computer screen?
Ticked off at webs sites for displaying so many that you can't even see the page?
Frustrated with that pop-up blocker that doesn't seam to work?

It seams like these days more and more of my clients are calling me about problems with those dreaded pop-ups. Some have even question me about why my sites and the sites I have built for my clients use pop-up ads. It's hard to convince the average non technical internet user that it is not the web page they are looking at that is producing pop-up ads, but software, spyyware, adware or hijackers that is delivering pop-ups.

Spyyware, adware ,hijackers and software that use pop-ups have, in every incident that I have been asked to fix, have completely taken over my clients computer and have made them nearly useless. I have seen these deliver pornographic, casino, get rich and get rid of pop up ads.
The last one, "get rid of pop up ads", are some of the most devious marketing schemes I have ever seen. They claim to get rid of pop-ups by placing ads all over your computer. When you buy or get this it not only doesn't do what it says, but places even more pop-ups on your computer!

Spyyware, adware ,hijackers and software that use pop-ups are starting to be classified by the anti-virus software companies as viruses. This is a good first step, but most pop-up software goes unchecked because anti virus companies haven't gone nearly far enough to remove all pop-up threats.

How pop-up Spyyware, adware ,hijackers and software get onto your computer.

As an attachment in your email.
1. Never open attachments from people don't know. This includes trusted companies you do business with. Companies will generally provide you with a download link to transfer files to you not send them as an attachment. Be careful virus hackers try to make there email look as "real" as possible.
2. Keep your virus software up to date and do a complete hard drive scan once a week.
Malicious web sites.
1. Keep your browsers security settings at a safe levels, in IE tool - internet options on Netscape edit - preferences.
2. Avoid "seedy" sites - porn, free "hacked" software, etc.
Free Software Downloads.
1. Most free software comes with a price. It may just be a "talk back" feature that lets the software maker know how you use the product and what your surfing habits are like. Or, more likely the above plus delivering you advertisements based on your habits.
2. Even the large computer manufactures are getting into spyware or talk-back software business. These are not as damaging to computer use as the "virus like" sypware but do slow down you internet connection quite a bit.

So how do you stop these unwanted pop-ups?

Windows Operation Systems

Go to start - Settings - Control Panel - Add Remove software and remove any software that you are sure you don't need.

Update your anti-virus software.
Then run a full system scan. This may take a while, you may want to do this at night before bed it should be finished by the morning.
Now download Ad-Aware free or pay version. You may also run SpyBot (free). Install and run. Make sure you get the updates and apply immunization features.
Now get a personal firewall (Pay, adds to the right). This will block and tell you if any software tries to talk-back with out your permission.
You may need to run through this a few times. Some software tries to reinstall it's self after it's removal. You may need to access your system registry- start run regedit or disable a start up item - start run msconfig. Be careful and follow you anti-virus - anti spyware instructions.
Keep your anti spyware and anti virus software up to date.
Your internet firewall may disable a lot legitimate and useful images, advertisements and downloads and uploads. You can disable this as I do most of the time, however it is wise to let it run while your not at your computer and when entering unknown internet sites.
To block normal pop-ups, I use the Google Toolbar. It's free and it works.

Keywords: popup pop-up pop up, virus, hijacker, adware

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