# How do you get rid of porn programs running on your hard drive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 13, 2002, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-rid-of-porn-programs-running-on-your-hard-drive/142477 "2002-12-13T09:28:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shame\_s\_Joys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Shame\_s\_Joys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shame_s_Joys)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-rid-of-porn-programs-running-on-your-hard-drive/142477/1 "2002-12-13T09:28:02Z")
I don’t know how this got onto my computer, but every time I reboot it, this porn thingy (“Hottest Live Shows!”) appears: 1. A window pops up telling me to click it to register. 2. A shortcut icon appears on my desktop. 3. The shortcut adds itself to my startup menu (the one with the big icons at the top of the menu when I hit the “Start” button). I used Ad-Aware and deleted everything it found. I cleared out the temp files the best I could. Whatever I could think of, I deleted it. But the damn porn still pops up every time I reboot. If Ad-Aware can’t banish it, what else can I do? HELP! I’m getting sick of this!!! ---
**Author:** ![lukaspriest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5a626/32.png) [@lukaspriest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lukaspriest)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-rid-of-porn-programs-running-on-your-hard-drive/142477/2 "2002-12-13T11:00:46Z")
the only thing I can think of is trying to find exactly what the name of the program is…if it has a main file name or .exe file. Look for it on your harddrive using the search function. Also, if you have a non-win2k system, like XP or 98 or ME, go to start/run/ and type msconfig. (If you have Win 2k, you’ll have to download an appropriate msconfig program, which you would put in your WINNT/system folder, and it can be found on the net). Through that you can go to the “startup” and dictate what programs start when you load windows. It may have the name of the offending file, and you can disable it from starting up when you load windows. Further, if you’re feeling especially brave, you can CAREFULLY search for registry files by going to start/run/ and typing regedit. Do a search and nuke the offending stuff. Once again, I repeat, be EVER SO CAREFUL deleting that stuff, as you can totally shaft your computer if you delete something vital. It would probably be wise to make a back up before you start tinkering. Good Luck! Just my $0.02 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-rid-of-porn-programs-running-on-your-hard-drive/142477/3 "2002-12-13T11:03:35Z")
I don’t know anything about porn programs specifically (no, really, I don’t), but try Start\>Run and type in MSCONFIG Then have a look at stuff in the Startup tab. You could also poke around in the registry (usual disclaimers: back it up first blah blah) Start\>Run and REGEDIT, then browse to HKEY\_CURRENT\_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Run (also KEY\_LOCAL MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Run) - see if there is anything in there that looks sus. Then there might be an IE extension installed; using Windows explorer, browse to \Windows\Downloaded Program Files - this should contain things like flash plugins etc, but you can pretty much uninstall everything you see in there as IE will just install anything you really need automatically on demand. HTH ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-rid-of-porn-programs-running-on-your-hard-drive/142477/4 "2002-12-13T11:11:25Z")
Sounds like you’ve installed some spyware. There is plenty of free software that will get rid of it such as [http://www.lavasoftusa.com/](http://www.lavasoftusa.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-rid-of-porn-programs-running-on-your-hard-drive/142477/5 "2002-12-13T11:23:13Z")
You may need to have a look through the registry. That being the case try [regcleaner](http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/regcleaner.shtml) . It’ll lay everything installed on your computer out for you and you hopefully will be able to find and delete the offending program(s). ---
**Author:** ![Tomcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-rid-of-porn-programs-running-on-your-hard-drive/142477/6 "2002-12-13T13:02:29Z")
I use a great program called Spybot (Google it). It goes through and checks all types of spyware and porn program stuff…and it’s free! The guy who made it is just a regular Joe (er, Hanz, he’s German) that does this on his freetime. It works great on Win 98, 2000 and XP. -Tcat ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-rid-of-porn-programs-running-on-your-hard-drive/142477/7 "2002-12-13T13:42:23Z")
Adaware - by Lavasoft. As Tapioca pointed out. ---
**Author:** ![Shame\_s\_Joys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Shame\_s\_Joys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shame_s_Joys)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-rid-of-porn-programs-running-on-your-hard-drive/142477/8 "2002-12-13T20:13:19Z")
Thanks, **lukaspriest** and **Mangetout** for suggesting msconfig. When the damnable thing came up again, I right-clicked and tried “scan it for viruses”. That’s how I found out the offending program’s name and filepath. It was C:\ecommerce\dialer.exe … so I deleted it, in fact I used Uninstaller and deleted all the associated files. Rebooted and … there it was again! Damn! Now I looked into msconfig and found there’s a _deeper_ level of crap that is maybe what spawns the ecommerce dialer. It’s at C:\sexicams.exe … so I’m using msconfig to take it out of the startup and also deleting it. Maybe that will banish it for once and for all. **Tapioca Dextrin** and **whuckfistle** , hel-_LO_. I wrote in the OP that I’d already tried Ad-Aware but it didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-rid-of-porn-programs-running-on-your-hard-drive/142477/9 "2002-12-13T20:45:47Z")
He asked as he waved his hairy palms. ---
**Author:** ![Shame\_s\_Joys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Shame\_s\_Joys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shame_s_Joys)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-rid-of-porn-programs-running-on-your-hard-drive/142477/10 "2002-12-13T21:26:47Z")
YES!!! It worked. I finally located the source of the infestation using msconfig. And didn’t even need to monkey with the regedit, thank goodness. Thanks once again, guys. I posted the question not only because I needed to root this out, but for the benefit of anyone else who might like to know how to do it. **sailor** , that is _not_ funny. I do not know how this got into my system, I just need to protect my cyber self (in some curious way, an extension of my organic self) from porno infection(again, in some curious way, a close analogue of sexually transmitted diseases).