This is driving me crazy!!!

[Ey yi yi]

I keep getting this stupid popup for a thing called "Adsquash". I've done everything I can think of to get it to stop popping up. I have an anti-ad program already and this is seeming more and more like an annoying AD under the cover of a stupid website/program. I have no P2P or anything else on my computer that causes ads. Anyone had problems with this too? Know how to fix it?

[jeaniesing]

Is it one of those windows messenger popups....??? try doing the cntrl+alt+del things when it pops up sometime and see if there is a program running that might be causing it... A google search on 'adsquash' produces nothing :(

[Zandro]

Never heard of it, but I bet anything I can help you get rid of it. Post a HijackThis log as I had requested from your other thread, and we'll see if there are any nasty background processes to be removed.

[CyberCat]

It's rather ironic how the things that are being advatised in the popups are the very things that will remove the popups. :rolleyes:

[JeffS]

Do you have Windows XP or 2000 with the messenger service enabled? I've never heard of that pop up so I am wondering if they are just using that windows service to advertise.

[CyberCat]

You could try disconnecting from the internet and see if that fixes the problem.

[Zandro]

Originally posted by CyberCat
You could try disconnecting from the internet and see if that fixes the problem.

That wouldn't accomplish much. More than anything, I'd expect it to result in more errors than before.

[CyberCat]

Yup, but if the ads are being loaded from some web site then it would seem that not being connected to the internet would prevent them from appearing, unless the ads are already on the machine. But I agree that it doesn't really help since you wouldn't be able to access the internet.

[Ey yi yi]

Let's see,

I uninstalled windows messenger with a nifty little program. I can't stand WM. I have chat programs but never open them. This has only happened recently. I've emptied my temp folder and it makes the page go away, but it comes back a couple of days later. I've tried blocking the website and that hasn't helped. Google doesn't have anything for adsquash (I searched in order to try to figure out how to get rid of the stupid thing). Don't go to it cause you'll never get rid of it, but it has a website of www.adsquash.com.

Tons of questions here...

Oh, and the last time I tried to use Hijackthis, the program kept freezing up. I tried downloading it several times but it never worked right.

[Zandro]

The quickest way to remove the advertisement other than using HijackThis is by RegEdit, and perhaps you should get someone experienced to do the following for you if you're uncomfortable with using the windows utility.

Access this key...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects

...And delete the corresponding BHO that produces the advertisement.

[CyberCat]

To add to Zandro's post, you can start the Registry Editor by clicking Start -> Run...

Now type "regedit" and click OK.
The registry editor opens and you can navigate the "keys" Zandro mentioned like you would normal directories (folders) on your hard disk.

[Zandro]

Just be careful, I stress as much as anyone else who speaks of it online. (*shrugs*) If you delete an incorrect key, the operating system will result in a variable amount of instability depending on what you delete, but enough with the dispellation of common sense.

[CyberCat]

Yeah, be *VERY* careful about what you do in the registry, you can totally mess up your computer by changing the seemingly tiniest thing, making your computer unbootable.

[Ey yi yi]

Ok, this is what keeps popping up.

I have edited regestry before. I do actually know quite a bit about computers. This is just driving me nuts because I can't get rid of the stupid thing no matter what I do. I cannot possibly be the only one having problems with this.

And I know I'm not dillusional because of the screen cap.

[Bladez26]

here a link that may help on this

http://www.techsupportforum.com/computer/topic/17992-1.html

[Zandro]

Perhaps you have a trojan hidden away somewhere. I have found Bazooka Scanner to be a nifty little gadget that keeps a database of solutions to rare infections. It does not actually clean them out, but instead directs you to a page with instructions how to remove them yourself. Download it for free from http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/

Good luck with it.

[CyberCat]

Have you done a scan with a spyware-away program such as Ad-Aware?

[jeaniesing]

:laugh:... I searched "adsquash" before.... this time I searced "ad squash" and although there are no results that help... the results that pop up are fun! :)

[CyberCat]

Yeah, I did a search for it too, no luck. Sorry :(

Be sure to scan your computer with Ad-Aware!

http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/

[kim_eh]

Originally posted by jeaniesing
the results that pop up are fun! :)

:laugh: Only you, only you...

[pir0u3tt3]

I use Yahoo Browser's pop-up blocker and I also have Norton Anti-Virus and they both block up all of the pop-ups I used to have. Occasionally, you'll get a few, but it's rarely. I hope I helped. :thumbsup:

[Zandro]

Internet JavaScript-triggered pop-ups are somewhat different from adware popups embedded in the registry and/or dynamic linking library (DLL) form elsewhere on the computer. The popups in this situation are presenting themselves even without a browser accessing the internet. The Yahoo toolbar is a Browser Helper Object (BHO), which is dependant on the browser being loaded into memory to become active; therefore, it is ultimately useless in this situation.

[taff]

Have you tried running spybot search and destroy?
I find that running Spybot in conjunction with AdAware from Lavasoft gets rid of any and all of those nasty popups, trojans, trackers etc.