# This keeps popping up on my computer!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-keeps-popping-up-on-my-computer/174198>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 9, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-keeps-popping-up-on-my-computer/174198 "2003-05-09T20:58:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SkeptoLesbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SkeptoLesbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptoLesbo)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-keeps-popping-up-on-my-computer/174198/1 "2003-05-09T20:58:43Z")

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This IE window keeps popping up - it’s blank but in the address bar it says:

http://www\_getwindowinfo/

Any idea what is going on here? Is it as ominous as it sounds?

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**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-keeps-popping-up-on-my-computer/174198/2 "2003-05-09T21:23:28Z")

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It’s popup spam advertising.

Don’t click on any links.

Delete it. Forget about it.

If it persits, get Ad-Aware, or a similar product (they’re free) to remove internal references which may be hidden on your system.

Welcome to the web! 😃

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**Author:** ![SkeptoLesbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SkeptoLesbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptoLesbo)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-keeps-popping-up-on-my-computer/174198/3 "2003-05-09T22:47:46Z")

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There are no ads and no links on this page- it’s completely blank.

I’m no newbie… I just hadn’t seen this one before. (I run stopzilla and normally zero ads get through)

J

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**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-keeps-popping-up-on-my-computer/174198/4 "2003-05-09T23:02:23Z")

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I’m no techie, but perhaps you could block it. If you click on Tools in IE and go to Privacy and then click on Edit. Then you can put in “http://www\_getwindowinfo/” and click Block.

Would this work? Hmmm

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-keeps-popping-up-on-my-computer/174198/5 "2003-05-09T23:27:21Z")

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IANAP[sub]rogrammer[/sub], but it appears that **getwindowinfo** [is a function of IE](http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/winui/winui/windowsuserinterface/windowing/windows/windowreference/windowfunctions/getwindowinfo.asp) that an application, script or website can call to get the title of an open window. It sounds like either the application making the call, or IE itself is malfuntioning, and trying to display the call as a window. You might try repairing IE and see if that corrects the problem. Go to **Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs** , select **Microsoft Internet Explorer** , click on **Add/Remove** , select **Repair** and click **OK**. This works in Win98, I don’t know if it is the same in WinXP.