Ok, I have XP. The browsers i have are IE and FF, latest versions. I use FF, with IE as a backup in case FF fails...again.

I also have AVG and Ad-Aware installed.

I don't know what happened, but sometime between Saturday night and Sunday night something happened. Now I have random windows popping up, some pornographic (and with children around that is NOT a good thing), sometimes windows wanting me to download some sort of registry defender, and sometimes just random advertisements.

I have the pop-up blocker on. I've run AVG and Ad-aware, no warnings or infections. But the windows just keep popping up. And websites like Facebook are taking FOREVER to load, and my Yahoo mail isn't loading at all.

Any ideas on what could be the problem and what I need to do to fix it? The new browser windows popping up with all that crap are what's really making me angry.

That's because FF is poo. Use Safari!

Haha but seriously... that's rather crappy. But my FB isn't loading very well at the moment either so I think that is the website's fault.

I've never had any issues with FF. lol

Virus scan in safe mode.

Actually, do *everything* in safe mode.

Turn on the computer and smack the F8 key until you get the boot menu. Hit *safe mode with networking*

Spybot S&D is ESSENTIAL. This is NOT because you need it to clean out spyware and adware. This is because you need it to PREVENT those things. Spybot has an immunize feature which blocks nasty shit and pop ups and advertisements from your browsers by basically blacklisting them so that you never have to deal with them.

It never hurts to try different anti-virus scanners. Avira Anti-Vir is free. Their heuristic detection (to detect unknown viruses) is kinda potent for a free program if you set it to the highest level (false positives are possible).

Clean out your registry. Ccleaner is a free and great program. Cleans out the browsing history and cookies and all that garbage which you should never have in the first place.

ALSO!!!! TuneUp utilities 2009. You can get the free, FULLY FUNCTIONAL 30-day trial. The registry cleaner that program offers is so easy to use and it catches errors that Ccleaner misses. The tweaks and tuneup services it offers are so easy to use and amazing, with options that more advanced users can manipulate on their own.

Usually those programs can help combat a barrage of pop-ups and spyware and adware and help to clean up a mess leftover from a virus.

when i have that problem i get Spybot S&D (search and destroy), it looks for browser hi-jackers like that.

Have you updated Ad Aware's definitions lately?

It is set up to automatically update.

Then I can only suggest trying out a lesser known spyware removal tool. My guess is that Ad Aware and AVG are well known enough that whatever is infecting you has been coded to override them. Maybe try the Spybot like Jessica said.

I tried downloading Spybot. Every time I try to install the program, I get the message "not a valid Win32 application". Happened when I tried to download Opera, too.

Have you got any program popping up called like Anti-Virus 2009 or something?

The only program-related thing that pops up is a new browser window that has "Registry Defender download".

Okay, I'm not sure. That's odd for it to just start doing that

Go into your Add/Remove programs and remove ALL EVERY SINGLE ONE THEY ARE AWFUL toolbars. Yahoo, Google, MySpace, Zwinky, CoolWebSearch whatever. Remove them all. Reboot. Try running Ad-Aware again. I use Spy Sweeper and Spybot. You can get a trial of Spy Sweeper, I think, it takes a while but is pretty efficient. If Spybot still won't go, try Spyware Doctor.

Hope you get it fixed soon. :(

I haven't added any of those things, so unless they add themselves, that isn't the problem.

Sometimes they do, though. Like with messengers? I can't think of what else...Anything else you could remove manually, anyway. Have you tried running a virus scan in safe mode?

I had that problem recently.
A system restore to two weeks prior fixed it for me.

It's ad-ware.