Expert: Brian Benosky - 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
Hi Aly

To answer your second question first, CCleaner is a much more thorough tool for removing cookies,temporary files, URL history, autocomplete form history, index.dat. files, and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Firefox, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip, etc.
than Windows alone can do.  It also includes a safe registry cleaner to delete old or missing registry entries.  Geeks such as myself love it, so you know it must be good! :-)

As for your pop-up blocker, which one do you use?  There are so many that I really can't say if the problem lies with the software, or with something else.  Also, you can still be infected, even though your scans are showing clean.  It would be best if I double check your system to see if anything malicious is running.  Please download TrendMicro HijackThis! from the following link:
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/threat_analytics/HJTInstall.exe
* Save HJTInstall.exe to your desktop.
* Doubleclick on the HJTInstall.exe icon on your desktop.
* By default it will install to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis.
* Click on Install.
* It will create a HijackThis icon on the desktop.
* Once installed, it will launch Hijackthis.
* Click on the Do a system scan and save a logfile button. It will scan and the log should open in notepad.
* Click on "Edit > Select All" then click on "Edit > Copy" and Paste the entire contents of the log (no attachments) into a follow-up here.
Also let me know which blocker you use.

Brian