pop up things- how to get rid!!!!!!!

[scottiebabe]

Help - can anyone tell me how to get rid of all these msn messenger pop up things - they are quite rude sometimes and dd had loads when she was on pc earlier!?

I've been told it's a fault with windows software that these ads can get through once you're connected. So as long as you've got virus protection I don't think there's any more you can do, other than teach dd to click on the x in the top right hand corner as soon as they appear and never ever respond to any of them. Not much help sorry. Hopefully I'm wrong.

MSN Messenger or just the Messenger pop ups?

MSN Messenger you can either get rid of MSN Messenger or set it to only accept messages from people on your contact list. To find out exactly how to do that you'd have to get advice from someone who uses it, I'm afraid (I use ICQ not MSN Messenger).

If WinXP, to turn off messenger popups you want Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services

scroll down to Messenger and double click. Set Startup Type to disabled and click Okay.

Alternatively install a firewall like Norton Internet Security or Zonealarm. To be honest, everyone who has a computer that connects to the internet should always install a firewall and a virus checker.

Um, the bit from "If WinXP"... is referring to just the Messenger pop ups, sorry, didn't make that clear.

its the pop up things that offer things like enlargements etc to various body parts not the actual pop up when you get a msg - sorry i didnot make that too clear

Follow the bits from "If WinXP..." then - hopefully that will sort it out!

(assuming your PC is running WinXP of course... I'm not sure where it would be in a non-XP machine - hopefully someone else can help with that).

have tried this hopefully it will work - yes it is XP - sorry to have been so thick before

Don't be daft! Computers are never the easiest to explain/work out what's going on when you're not physically there at the best of times!!

I do recommend you get yourself a firewall at some point though - they take a little faffing to set up, but they are worth it security-wise.

toolbar.google.com/ works very well for me!

Different sort of popup I think in this case, naughtynoonoo... Google Toolbar supresses the ad popups that some websites have running when you visit them. The Messenger window is a "feature" of Windows (a very annoying one too) and can pop up at any time you are connected even without a web browser open.

I think one evening I must have clicked close on about 50 messages from some porn site advertiser until it dawned on me dh had forgotten to install a firewall on the laptop... sigh.

message withdrawn

For a good popup suppressor (of the browsing variety) I can thoroughly recommend not using IE! I use Mozilla Firebird and you can configure that to suppress any popups, and it distinguishes very well between those that are "genuine" popups (clicking on an enlarged picture for example) and which are of the spam advert variety.

Plus there are a lot fewer security issues with Mozilla than there are with IE, tabbed browsing (you can get new windows in tabs rather than a whole new window) and a really excellent bookmarking system.

I have a firewall, have the google toolbar installed, and did what you explained earlier, Georgina, but still get pop-ups...

What sort of popups Mammya? Are they associated when you fire up your browser or just occur at any time?

There's a possibility you might have some sort of spyware running on your PC. There's a nice little utility you can get called Ad-aware which can clean up those advertising little nasties (including other tracker programs that watch where you go on the net). You could try that and see if it finds anything.

The other thing worth noting is that I don't use Google Toolbar (it works with IE only) so don't know how efficient it is at stopping popups - as it's relatively new, it might just be that it doesn't stop all of them getting through (or does it need to be configured at all?)

Sorry I couldn't be of more help

(Ad-aware btw is a free utility - although they do have paid versions available, I've always gone for the free one and found it very good).

Thanks Georgina, I'll try that, although it's been better since I've had the Google toolbar. In fact, come to think of it, haven't had one tonight yet (touch wood). As for what kind of pop up they are, I'm not sure, I always have my browser open when I'm on the net. They're just those little grey boxes that popup now and then.

GeorginaA - you star - did what you said and they seem to have disappeared - thanx so much

Yes Georgina, excellent, they're gone here too! Thank you soooo much, they were really annoying!

Great news!

Now lets hope they stay away (I got my first browser popup ad for ages today, so I've obviously jinxed myself!! Sometimes the little gits get through no matter what you do...)

Scottie, I have just stopped these bloody messages, you mean the grey ones from adstopper, messengerblocker etc. To do this I asked AOL how. This is what you do.

On start menu click run

type in 'services.msc /s'

in right hand side look for 'messenger' click on it.

In general look for startup type and click on disabled.

then ok

When you restart windows you won't get them anymore. Brilliant.

Oh and there is a space between 'msc & the / sign'. V.important.

Hurrah!! they appear to have gone for good