Get this pop-up out of my computer

General Questions
#1

A couple of days ago, I noticed a popup that…um…popped up whenever I started IE. I didn’t think much of it at the time as XenoBar blocked its content and I was at a site that may have had popups. Then I realized that with my XenoBar settings, it shouldn’t have been popping up at all. I looked at the 404 error I was getting and it mentioned s-studio.net. I glanced at this site and found it was a gambling site. I have never been to this site before, yet somehow it’s managed to invade something on IE to make me get this popup whenever I least expect it.

I turned the problem over to the capable hands of my computer-tech boyfriend. He couldn’t find out where it was coming from. I ran AdAware. I ran AdAware again. I deleted all my cookies. Hello annoying popup! Please go back to the hell from whence you came!

I can’t think of where this thing has managed to wedge itself, but I want it OUT. I hate it and want it to die. Has anyone else gottent this, gotten rid of it, heard of it? How do I make it go away?

Please don’t tell me how great browser XYZ is and how it does all these wonderful popup blocking things that IE doesn’t do. I don’t care. I like IE.

#2

You have some spyware in your startup programs. I had a problem like this a few weeks ago, and it drove me nuts! Neither SpyBot or AdAware coudl get rid of it.

What I ended up doing was getting a program called HiJack This which will make a log of all your IE registry keys plus startup programs. I thought I could figure out myself what to turn off in Startup but I couldn’t.

I ended up posting my log file into a forum like this one and within minutes someone told me exactly how to remove my offending popups. Or you can browse those forums and see how other peopls have been helped and you’ll figure it out yourself.

#3

s-studio.net was the former home of XenoBar. It has since gone under.

Have you tried uninstalling XenoBar? It may have a “Check for Updates” feature that opens a window when it starts.

#4

I highly recommend downloading either Mozilla 1.5 or it’s little brother Mozilla Firebird. Use either one as your web browser instead of Internet Explorer and you will be proof against virtually all the drive-by installs, homepage hijacks, and malicious html pages out there. It’s built-in pop-up blocker alone is well worth the download time, and it’s completely free. I’ve used it for wuite a while, and simply put, it rocks.

Get it for free here.

#5

Ahem.

Please don’t tell me how great browser XYZ is and how it does all these wonderful popup blocking things that IE doesn’t do. I don’t care. I like IE.

#6

Could it be that Xenobar was the cause of the popup to begin with?

#7

Yes, it was. I hadn’t registered it within the registration period and it was trying to get me to register it after the site went under. Computer tech boyfriend looked at it again and realized this, so I got the registration key from one of the many sites he knows of and the popup went away.

It went away!

Away!

Happydance!

Thank you for pointing us in the right direction. I was sure it was a nasty worm-type device in my browser.