Must stop pop ups

[Ray Bright]

New to Windows (recovering MacSnob) Little windows asking me lots of unnecessary questions constantly pop up my screen whether I'm online or not. HOw do I stop that? MaAfee. ID Shield. Several identified as Microsoft. They proliferate as time goes on, then I reinstall and start again. Two weeks tops. I hate this thing.

Ray

 

[jefboyardee]

I have Win7 HP and use the latest Firefox browser with the Adblock Plus extension. I'm not sure if any of those are the reason, but I have no such problems. It sounds to me that you've installed something that has unwanted extras. First thing I'd check in RegEdit are lists like

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Known offenders there can be deleted. Lots of other places to check too, google around for that.

 

[Ray Bright]

What do I do if I find one of the above?

 

[jefboyardee]

I might have pushed you too far up the ladder, my bad. Try this: Control Panel > Programs and Features. From there you can uninstall unwanted stuff. I don't know about Macs anymore, but PCs and droids, left unwatched, can clutter up with annoyances.

 

[jefboyardee]

Another handy app for seeing what's running in there is AUTORUN ORGANIZER 1.30 - Advanced Autorun Manager for Windows.

 

[TrainableMan]

Browsers can pop up extra windows depending how the webpages are coded, and if you add toolbars to a browser they often have ads or popups as well. It's also possible you installed a program which includes adware or malware that pops up that garbage.

You should uninstall all the toolbar(s) but the one you use. You should look at what programs you installed since the problem began and uninstall them. If you do not have active anti-virus software running, you need to install some from a reputable brand name and have it run a full scan. And you might also try running RKILL, TDSSKiller, and Malwarebytes in safe mode (only the passive version of MBAM, do not activate the free trial if you already have an active A/V) as described at the top of my post HERE.

 

[jefboyardee]

I haven't tried this, but it sounds like it's up your alley:

About Junkware Removal Tool (JRT)

Junkware Removal Tool is a security utility that searches for and removes common adware, toolbars, and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) from your computer. A common tactics among freeware publishers is to offer their products for free, but bundle them with PUPs in order to earn revenue. This tool will help you remove these types of programs.