my computer is spammed with porn

R

Ron1jed

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 22, 2001
Messages
5,118
help. my friend messed up my system bad by visiting porn sites. now i get a million pop ads. I"m running Xp. how do they get them to stop !!!!
 
Those don't clean the system 100%. Just this weekend my father ran afoul of something that creates popups and doesn't show on any spyware scanner, virus scanner, and isn't showing in the list of installed programs. The short fix was to install a hosts file that blocks the accesses to the adservers. The long fix is me having to spend many hours at some point to go through the system with a fine-toothed comb. Unfortunately a wipe & reinstall are out of the question, as is him switching to Mozilla and decent security settings (it makes the internet useless, as he puts it, since no more online banking, trading, fund research, etc.).
 
dude. its really bad. I'll leave the computer on and come back and there will be hundreds (ok well maybe not hundreds) of pop up porn ads. I used ada ware but the problem is still occuring. What to do
 
i am gonna kill my friend..........never had a problem like thsi before.
 
Originally posted by Ron1jed
i am gonna kill my friend..........never had a problem like thsi before.
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p0rn? uhhh... Whats the problem again? :confused:



:p. I would saw format reinstall. I do it about every 6 months any how.
 
Originally posted by pHatalbOom
why reinstall every so often?

i dont get it.
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explorer.exe has encountered errors and must be shutdown by Windows. Try getting this a few times a day, and reinstalling Windows every month at the least. Doesn't matter to me what anyone says about Windows being robust, but if a default install has more than two crashes a day in the shell, the shit ain't stable.
 
Originally posted by Snugglebear
explorer.exe has encountered errors and must be shutdown by Windows. Try getting this a few times a day, and reinstalling Windows every month at the least. Doesn't matter to me what anyone says about Windows being robust, but if a default install has more than two crashes a day in the shell, the shit ain't stable.
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I used to get that. Turned out to be a network worm.
 
This is routine on every computer I've got windows on, has happened since I started using windows, has happened accross four versions of windows, has happened regardless of installation media, regardless of network connectivity, regardless of configuration, and always while scanning free of viri.
 
Originally posted by Snugglebear
explorer.exe has encountered errors and must be shutdown by Windows. Try getting this a few times a day, and reinstalling Windows every month at the least. Doesn't matter to me what anyone says about Windows being robust, but if a default install has more than two crashes a day in the shell, the shit ain't stable.
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I'm not trying to be an ass, I promise. But if your reinstalling that frequently it's user error. I'm running w2k on my home box, and I have not reloaded in over 2 years. Actually I have not re-formatted (SOP for me when I do reinstall) a HDD since win2k for the purpose or reloading the OS on any machine I use (I do use support so I reinstall a lot for user's machines). I can keep uptimes in the days/weeks range, except for those damn critical patches. I rarely crash, and when I do it's usually a known bug in games I play.

What's the difference between me and a general user? I'm nicer to the machine, I don't get spyware on the box, I don't load BS software, I actually maintain my install... So you can say windows is fragile, but I doubt your being gentle on it. Windows (2k, XP) isn't as robust as other OSes, but it is robust.
 
Oh please, save me the bullshit. If windows is crashing a few minutes after installation, default everything, there's something outside of the user that's very wrong. That I can put FreeBSD or Solaris on these machines and have them run under full load for months without a hiccup is telling that is not a hardware issue.

There are two critical flaws with Windows: explorer's integration into the shell and the registry, both of which the user and administrator have only slight control over. The former is at MS's whim to get correct, the latter is at the control of the application developers. One can sit down and clean up the program droppings in the registry, but that's only so useful, and definitely not an efficient use of time. There are also two ways I've found at getting a windows installation to last a long time - don't install any software, especially not games, and don't use the system as a desktop. As shocking as it is, windows lasts far longer if you just run daemons off it.
 
Amazingly my machine functions as a desktop machine and a gaming platform all at once, but if I'm a fluke what about businesses? I'm sorry, but you are quite wrong. There is 0 chance business would rely on a system you just described, and yet they do. I have installing hundreds, if not thousands of machines with various windows OSes. What you describe is win3.1, maybe windows 95/98.

Cleaning the registry, nope, that's not a secret I use. Maybe that's why it's so stable...

If windows is crashing a few minutes after installation, default everything, there's something outside of the user that's very wrong.
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Simply put this doesn't happen. I install a custom image to several machines a day, they don't blow up as soon as I deploy them.

I guess from your strong stance nothing will change the way you do things, but I guarantee there is something -you- are doing to crash those installs. Installing bad drivers, mucking with registry settings you shouldn't, something. All MS OSes are not evil and crash within minutes of install. :rolleyes:
 
i couldnt agree more Phoenix86. everyone gives windows a bad name saying it crashes all the time, yet i run winxp pro on my laptop and two desktops and it runs flawlessly. plus, i dont use any secrets, i just dont install stuff that is gonna mess it up and i keep it updated.

and to get somewhat back on topic...

to Snugglebear: you dont have to manually reinstall that hosts file all the time. in adaware, after clicking Start scan, instead of doing the normal scan, do a customized scan. in there is an option to scan the hosts file for stuff that shouldnt be there or stuff that has been changed. usually running adaware, spybot and using the google toolbar will pretty much take care of any pop-up/spyware problems.
 
i used ada ware and the other one. still happening. what else can i use
 
Originally posted by Snugglebear
Oh please, save me the bullshit. If windows is crashing a few minutes after installation, default everything, there's something outside of the user that's very wrong. That I can put FreeBSD or Solaris on these machines and have them run under full load for months without a hiccup is telling that is not a hardware issue.
...
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Like Phoenix86 I have been using the same Win2k install for over a year with close to 99% uptime. I leave the machine on 24/7 and it simply does not crash. If you maintain your OS properly there is absolutely no reason you should have all these problems.

I've put together hundreds of PC's for people and never experienced this kind of Windows issue.
 
go into your add/remove programs folder in your control panel and uninstall any stuff that isn't supposed to be there. your friend may have hit the ok button to some misc. porn spamming crap when he was searching and installed some crap on your computer. get rid of that junk.
 
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