Wife's computer is bugged.

[RoadKingLarry]

Since the grand son is sleeping in my chair where I keep my laptop I decided to get on the wife's desktop. This thing has some kind of spyware loaded on it.
A few days ago I was on it on APS and every thread I would start getting pop-ups that had some tie in to the subject of the thread.
So, I went through and cleaned out some crap, turned on pop-up blocker and it seemed to go away. Just browsed te health insurance thread and no I'm getting a different kind of pop-up about health insurance.
Not confined to APS, I was on a sailboat forum and started getting pop-ups for boating stuff.
I wish the heck she would listen to me about the crap she allows to be loaded on this thing.
 

[RevDisk]

Since the grand son is sleeping in my chair where I keep my laptop I decided to get on the wife's desktop. This thing has some kind of spyware loaded on it.
A few days ago I was on it on APS and every thread I would start getting pop-ups that had some tie in to the subject of the thread.
So, I went through and cleaned out some crap, turned on pop-up blocker and it seemed to go away. Just browsed te health insurance thread and no I'm getting a different kind of pop-up about health insurance.
Not confined to APS, I was on a sailboat forum and started getting pop-ups for boating stuff.
I wish the heck she would listen to me about the crap she allows to be loaded on this thing.
 

Either reinstall the OS (best option) or run windows update, buy and install a real antivirus, then change all your passwords.

Second option has probably 80-95% chance of being successful. First is 99.999%.

[lee n. field]

Either reinstall the OS (best option) or run windows update, buy and install a real antivirus, then change all your passwords.

Second option has probably 80-95% chance of being successful. First is 99.999%.

First option is best.  Kill it with fire.

[charby]

Check to see what browser add-ons have been installed also check the control panel>Programs and Features to see if anything weird is installed.

Most popups seemed to be tied to browser add-ons or installed blogware.

[KD5NRH]

http://www.safer-networking.org/  Get SpyBot, and run it often.

Tell your wife to stop hanging out on porn sites.

[Hawkmoon]

Malware Bytes

Ad-Aware

Spybot

All are free, and all are effective. What (if anything) is she running as an anti-virus?

[Brad Johnson]

Malware Bytes

Ad-Aware

Spybot

All are free, and all are effective. What (if anything) is she running as an anti-virus?

This first.  Sounds more like annoy-ware than anything malicious. 

Brad

[RoadKingLarry]

Malware Bytes

Ad-Aware

Spybot

All are free, and all are effective. What (if anything) is she running as an anti-virus?

That's my basic plan. I run those on my laptop. We've both got Norton 360 as the main anti-virus. I don't have any of those kind of problems on my machine and I do from time to time hit a few "questionable" sites.

[Jim147]

That's my basic plan. I run those on my laptop. We've both got Norton 360 as the main anti-virus. I don't have any of those kind of problems on my machine and I do from time to time hit a few "questionable" sites.

Yeah, I've clicked on a few links in threads around here. I don't very often anymore.

jim

[AJ Dual]

Make her a "user" on her own PC and not the Administrator. 

[charby]

Make her a "user" on her own PC and not the Administrator. 

x1.0x10^99

[lee n. field]

Make her a "user" on her own PC and not the Administrator. 

And, for the sake of the annoyance, crank UAC up to maximum.

[RevDisk]

And, for the sake of the annoyance, crank UAC up to maximum.

Which trains the user to always click yes and not think about what they're doing.

[lupinus]

Which trains the user to always click yes and not think about what they're doing.

My wife was trained in that art long before I became her personal IT help desk.

[MechAg94]

Make her a "user" on her own PC and not the Administrator. 

I was thinking about doing this to myself, just to create a second user login for casual use and avoid the risk of accidentally hitting the wrong button.

[230RN]

Mine's getting flaky, too.  I'm getting sore tempted to wipe out all the cookies, but then I have to re-log in on my sites.

I just use Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) on the theory that MS is best equipped to keep their own system (W7 Home Premium) working, and has access to all the latest definitions the other AV sites have discovered.

That's the theory, anyhow.

But I wonder if somehow some evildoer might have buggered up the MS download of MSE definitions such that it won't detect his own evilware.

Had Norton, which came with the HP laptop's HP pain-in-the-ass overlay, but holy crap, it was constantly popping up with warnings, so I disabled it.

Maybe I shouldn't've.

Terry

[never_retreat]

Check for browser add ons. Some of those tool bars that get loaded are ripe for that kind of crap. Ask.com is a big one that tries to load itself with a lot of other software if you don't uncheck the dam box.

[lee n. field]

Which trains the user to always click yes and not think about what they're doing.

They don't anyway.

[Hawkmoon]

That's my basic plan. I run those on my laptop. We've both got Norton 360 as the main anti-virus. I don't have any of those kind of problems on my machine and I do from time to time hit a few "questionable" sites.

I have IT friends who contend (seriously) that Norton 360 IS a virus.

[Calumus]

I have IT friends who contend (seriously) that Norton 360 IS a virus.

I'll concur. It's awful. If free is what you need use Security Essentials. If you don't mind paying a few bucks, I usually recommend Eset nod32. Great product, reasonable price. Also,  try hitman pro,  and rogue killer by tigzy (that one will be on bleepingcomputer.com)  along with malwarebytes they can get rid of most anything you've managed to pick up.

[Hawkmoon]

Check to see what browser add-ons have been installed also check the control panel>Programs and Features to see if anything weird is installed.

Most popups seemed to be tied to browser add-ons or installed blogware.

^^^ True.

My wife's computer was always getting viruses. Some came in when our daughter downloaded games, but others came in because my wife was a toolbar junkie. Open her Internet Explorer, and there were so many toolbars there was virtually no space left for the browser window. I would clean them out and eliminate the viruses, and a week or a month later they'd all be back -- and she would again complain that the compter seemed to be running slow.