Surfing With Mozilla and then a window pops up and says that there are Windows updates that need to be intalled. It will not let me kill the window, so I just shut down the system hard (power off). Go to the MSN website and it tells me that there are no updates to install, not even non-critical updates. Malware on Mozilla? What’s the Straight Dope?
Um, the malware might be in windows using your default browser to pop up a window. Or it could be one of the new popups that circumvent popup protection.
It’s pretty much a given that people running Windows will get malware, even if they avoid MSIE. Get AdAware and run it to clean out some of the crap.
This could be the Windows Messaging Component - this was originally concieved as a way for people on a local area network to easily pop a message up on each other’s screens, or for an administrator to easily notify people of something he/she is about to do. Unfortunately, it’s also an open door for spam-style popups.
I never have. Keep up to date on patches, don’t use IE or Outlook, don’t download warez or porn from sketchy sites, and don’t punch the monkey.
Well, I switched to Mozilla as my default browser and it hasn’t happen since (X-fingers). I too use a firewall, have adaware, spybot, virus protection software, ect … ect… And keep it up to date. I do believe that it was messenger, I kept trying to kill that damn function but it keeps coming back. It’s not running now that I switched totally to Mozilla as the default browser, so I think it’s ok.
Thanks.
Adding on what Mangetout said, Windows Messaging is not Microsoft’s MSN Messenger. Windows Messaging is an internal component to Windows, not a standalone program.
Spam on this messenger service has become quite common, and it may fool users because this looks like a Windows message. It’s not malware.
To shut down: Log in as administrator. Go to Cotrol Panel - Administrative Tools - Services. Find the “Messenger” service (right pane) in this new window, select properties and choose “disable” as start-up option.
On the other hand. You should have been able to shut down this window. What did it look like? A Windows Messaging message should be black text in a grey box - no bright colors or links.
It was a blue windows type message box that said “There are Windows Updates Ready to Load” and gave me a yes/no pick to choose from. I right clicked the on the box in the lower toolbar area and it did not give me an option to cancle the popup. I clicked on the X at the upper right of the message block and there was no cancel option (grayed out).
I had auto update set for windows but it did not acknowledge the event and went to the MSN site and found that there were no updates to install. Went to the Task Manager and there was no process running to kill.
Now I think that maybe I had gone back to a previous setpoint and it reset my Spybot and Spywareblaster settings and allowed some malware in. I have since re-updated these settings.
From your description, I don’t think it is/was malware.
It could very well be a sophisticated popup (even if you have disabled popups in Mozilla new windows may pop). However, you should have seen it as a process.
My bet is on the Windows Messaging Component, though I can’t remember a “cancel” option in any of those windows. In that case it’s harmless. But maybe someone who are more familiar with Windows Messaging can shed some light on this?