pop ups interupting my galciv game!!!

Are you connected to the net when it happens? Also, could you give me a screenshot of it...because if its what I'm thinking, then I can tell you what you need to do to stop them for good, without buying a program for it.

Its that annoying messanger crap. You have to disable it and they will go away. A firewall should work too if you don't know how to disable it

If it is the annyoing messenger crap, then a firewall can decrease the frequency, but it won't stop it altogether, unless its set to the max. Give me a min. I'll find the instructions I had here on disabiling it....

--This came from the G.R.O.S.S. comm thread...it was in thread 1019, I think. Here it is:

That pop up can be easily disabled. It's simple, but I found this out after playing around with a few things. I dunno if this works on any other operating system other than XP, but if you can find the 'services' program then you're set... here's how (for XP users):

Click Start
Click on Control Panel (you can also find it under 'my computer')
Click on Administrative Tools
Click on Services
Scroll Down and find Messenger
Double click on it
Under the General tab, look at Startup Type
Click on the drop down box and select disabled
Click on Apply, then Ok and close any remaining open windows
(May want to restart comp also)

There ya go . Good thing about this is that you don't have to pay the $20 for the program that does it for you . Btw, disabliling this will NOT disable windows or MSN messenger. Here's what the description is:

*Transmits net send and Alerter service messages between clients and servers. This service is not related to Windows Messenger. If this service is stopped, Alerter messages will not be transmitted. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.*

There are also a whole slew of services that most home computers don't use, and if disabled, it can help computer preformance, and decrease boot and shutdown time.

Hope this helps.

It also could be a spyware or adware program. If you recently downloaded Kazaa, go to your control panel, select add/remove programs, select "SaveNow", and then hit remove. There are other adware programs that come with various freeware apps, so you can check the program list for anything that looks similar to that.

Sounds like you got bit by a Gator. Gator sometimes, even if you don't install it, hides a program on your computer that creates pop-ups.

thanks to all the info everyone.
EBZeroMatrix >>> thanks for the instructions, im trying it out. samething is happening to my girlfriends sister's computer, im going to tell her to follow the same instructions.


all the other questions -i havent installed kazaa or anything. i did have gator, but that was before my hard drive got fried.

the popups i was getting were happening randomly, i might not get one for a few days, then this morning while i was trying to play GalCiv, i had 2 in 5 minutes -really anoying.

anyways, thanks everyone.

Hey, no problemo. Glad to help out a member of the Illuminati

I've heard the samethin happen as well. Technically, such programs are illegal, regardless of whatever is placed in a license agreement.

If something managed to sneak it's way onto your system, you may want to check out Ad Aware. It detects current advertising software, and can remove them: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

that wasnt it, unfortunalty
just a few minutes ago, another spam window popped up.
im going to see what that Ad Aware program is.

how do i take screenshots? next time it happens, i want to take a screenshot of it, that way you guys can see whats going on.

could you take a screenshot of the pop-up?

i just downloaded the Ad Aware program and ran it, seems pretty good. it found 32 programs ("gator" was on the list a few times by the way), and it removed all 32 programs, now to see if i get those pop-ups again.

if Ad Aware fails and i get another pop-up, i will try to get a screenshot, but im not sure how to do it. is it the "print screen" button on the keyboard? where does it save too, and do i need to configure that button first?

Yea, use the print screen button. What it does is save the screenshot to a clipboard, where you can paste it on a paint program, save, and send it.

i cant find any clipboard program anywhere

I got an even better spyware detecting program: Spybot.

It's freeware (so, you can't call me a fanboy) and it finds stuff ad-aware can't detect.

http://security.kolla.de/

ok, i got both Spybot and AdAware. maybe overkill?
oh well, both are free, and both dont take up much memory also.

i have to pray for pretty ladies for the author of Spybot, it said so in the license agrement LOL

[Message Edited]

My parents had a similar problem, only it happened when ever they logged into thier XP home account. They use broadband, so as soon as the desktop came up, so did the pop-ups... information was flying to and from thier machine, bogging down the simplest functions like checking e-mail. I ran Spybot and AdAware-- a great combo, took care of the problem.

Spybot will also inoculate your machine against other know threats and you can set it to block "bad" webpages from uploading stuff to your machine.

Be warned, as Spybot will tell you, AdAware will detect files in your Sybot folder as spyware, it is nothing to worry about though.

Nice to be a part of such a great community. This thread also helps me alot, I had the same problems. Thanks, guys, for all the valuable information

i think Ad Aware and SpyBot both did the trick, but im not sure which one got rid of the pop-ups. its been 2 days about, and no pop-up yet

You may have to download some anti-pop up programs like "beware of dog" and "Broccili". Most of them are anti-porn pop-ups but they still work on regular pop-ups. (These are real programs not a hoax) Check for them at download.com and google.com.