Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 6/7/2008

Question
Hi there,
How are you?
Wondering if you can help me w/my issue:
My computer's "block pop-up windows" option always UNchecks when I check it. While most would assume spyware is manipulating my cpu- I actually ran adaware and spybot right before the unchecking continued to happen. Any idea why this happens & how I can fix it ASAP?

Also- is a cookie cleaner program like ccleaner.com necessary if I remove all my cookies through tools->options or does this do a better job?
Thanks!

-MS Windows XP Professional 5.1 Dell Desktop X86 2GB memory firefox browser

Answer
You are right to suspect an adware infection. It's unfortunate that the free anti-adware/spyware programs don't work.

One solution to your problem is to stop using Internet Explorer. I'm pretty sure you must be using it because it is famous for its security flaws. Instead, you could use either the free FIrefox browser at mozilla.org or the free Opera browser at Opera.com

Another solution is to get a high quality -- meaning one that costs money -- Internet security suite. Two of the best ones allow you a free trial so you can find out before you spend money whether these are better security products. I recommend either Kapersky Internet Security, which offers a free 30 day trial at http://kapersky.com or F-Secure's Complete Internet security suite, which offers a free thirty day trial: https://store.f-secure.com/cgi-bin/dlreg/ml=EN?ID=FSISTB&desid=TRIAL

Other experts might tell you to use the Hijack This program instead to figure out how to manually discover and remove whatever is causing your problem. However, it's a lot of work, requires that you be an extremely advanced computer user, and IMHO is just plain no fun. But if you wish to get under the hood, so to speak, of Internet Explorer, you can get this free diagnostic program at http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html