Community archive

Ask something
Discussion Locked

IE is getting hijacked / popups

0 helpful
6 replies

by richard.asplund.jr

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
There are times that my IE is not even open and pop ups will start pouring through. I don't use MSN messenger. Also going to very tame normal sites (many kids show sites / eeggs / and such) my IE gets hijacked to many not so tame sites. I've swept my system with both adaware and spybot to try to clean everything off but I keep having issues.

6 replies

by justanadmin

There are probably some programs running in the background that are causig this to occur, the same thing happened on a few of our work computers.

Try downloading Ad Aware to scan for these programs and it should be able to clear them out. Remember to remove any spaces in the URL:
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

by justanadmin

Sorry, obviously I didn't read the question thoroughly enough.

You may want to manually check IE for any browser helper objects (BHOs). Also, try pulling up a list of your running tasks and look for anything suspicious. I have seen a spyware program or two that ad aware failed to detect, but it did show up in the tasks and/or processes list.

Have any new programs been installed around the time this began, or any other changes?

Good luck!

by shasca

Had the same problem here I ran adaware 4 times and each time I opened i.e. the offending site would take over my browser again. Fix was in regedit under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\windows\current version\run. You would delete keys related to the sites that have installed in the run folder. Be careful of what you delete. If you look at the address of the offending site you will see the key name that corresponds to it in the run folder

IT IS ALWAYS BEST PRACTIC TO EXPORE A COPY OF THE REGISTRY BEFORE DELETING ANY KEYS

by kmerrillt

This sounds like you have a direct connection for the internet service. These pop-ups come through messenger service in the systems services program. (not MS instant messenger). You can disable this this function and still have excellent system functionality. Go to START>RUN>SERVICES.MSC and click ok.
When the configuration screen comes up, look for the line that says MESSENGER. (this is not instant messenger)Right click on this line, click properties, and change setting to MANUAL. This will stop incoming pop-ups and still leave your machine safe.

by richard.asplund.jr

Actually I just had a fatal system crash, and had to format reinstall, so I have no clue if any of the fixes posted would have worked, but thank you all for your help... just wish I could have used the solutions...

This discussion is closed to new replies.