Damn, I hate those popups. Anyone know how to stop them? I'm not talking about popups when u surf the net. I keep having stupid popups when I'm playing games and I spend half the time closing them. It gets really frustrating... :flaming:

Is it those windows messenger service pop-ups which looks like any other system message? That is a program you can turn off. Hmm, drats, I forgot where but I am sure someone else can help you, it is quite easy.

It's probaly spyware or something of that ilk, just download & run this (http://www.safer-networking.org/). It's a really good free atni-spyware program.

Yep, this is a problerm with Windows Xp. Follow these steps and this should sort the problem:...

1 - Start Menu - Settings - Control Panel - Administrative Tools.
2 - Double click Services.
3 - A list should appear with the heading Services (local).
4 - Scroll down till you find an entry called Messenger.
5 - Right click and click properties.
6 - Under the General tag, about halfway down should be Startup Type.
7 - Change that to Disabled and restart your computer. If this doesnt sort the problem, then maybe you have alot of Spyware which is causing it. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Just try that for now and report back if it doesnt work ;) .

Lavasoft Ad-aware at http://www.lavasoftusa.com .

And then ya might try Google toolbar ( http://toolbar.google.com ).

Believe me... these programs are worth getting.

Morsmordre, I just did what u told me too.. And I hope it works.
*crosses fingers*

Oh no.. I guess it didn't work.. And I always have this server busy alert, and it tells me to Switch server to solve the problem. I guess my computer is screwed..

Normally, you should do what Morsmordre says, but if it causes problems, you can get a program do that for you. A freeware one, of course. It's something you can do ticking a box in your settings and yet people charge money for it. Like $20 or more. The link below leads to a listing of freeware ad killers and some of them block IP messenger:

http://www.thenetsgreatest.com/Popup-Removers/Shareware%20Freeware.htm

People who send such ads should be castrated.

Argh. The freeware don't seem to be working. They just keep coming! And a strange thing is that the popups come most frequently when I'm playing a game with a full screen window. If not, there isn't any popups, like when im using the internet browser.

Did you try ad-aware (http://www.lavasoft.de) and spy-bot? (http://www.safer-networking.org) If you did, and they didn't help, try hitting CTRL+ALT+DEL and getting rid of most of the processes under the process tab in the Windows Task Manager (only if you have Windows XP & maybe Windows 2000).

Also, try going to Start --> Run, then type "msconfig" (without the quotes of course, and not Windows 2000) in the box that pops up, and go to the Startup tab and get rid of everything except regdump, explorer, and ipmon (if you have them), and anything else that you know what it is and need to come on when you start your computer. After it restarts, go back to msconfig and see if everything is still unchecked that unchecked. Just remembered, you can get the same effect (not sure about in Windows 2000) in the Advanced Mode of Spy-bot. Which case, in Spy-bot, you'd go to Tools -> System Startup. Then just do what I said before.

Disclaimer: This may mess up your computer...Make sure you back up your registry by going to File --> Export and save it under any name to your harddrive. It still may mess up your computer beyond repair short of a Windows reinstall.
If not, go to Start --> Run and type "regedit", and go to Edit -> Find, and then type that name of the process in, and delete the instance that is found. Hopefully this will solve the problem.

@Morsmordre - Shouldn't he, also, go to the Recovery tab and make sure it takes no action at subsequent failures? I'm asking because I remember the first time I did that, the program ended up starting back up, even if I initially disabled it at startup. Maybe that was just me? :confused: Either, it should be worth a shot eh?

Sorry about all of the edits :aww:

[ December 31, 2003, 07:45: Message edited by: a soubriquet ]

You can also try this little number...
1. Open Windows.

2. Go to "My Computer"

3. Go to "Control Panel"

4. Go to "Performance & Maintenance"

5. Go to "Administrative Tools"

6. Go to "Services"

7. Scroll down to "Messenger" and select it (highlight it by clicking once). Read the description that shows up on the left side of the screen. At the top left side of the little rectangular window, select the "stop the service" link. The status of Messenger Service can be seen on the right as "stopped." Since this is an "automatically starting service", it will start itself up again if you run a program which enables it. For a more permanent arrangement, you can fully disable the service by selecting Messenger and right click on it to view your options. Choose "disable." The window will inform you as to the programs or services that will be affected by this change.

8. Close the window and exit to desktop. You do not need to restart.

That's all there is to it. "Messenger Service" is a network service Microsoft has included in XP. In addition to it allowing unsolicited incoming IP Spam, Port 135 is vulnerable to worm and virus attacks. Messenger Service has nothing to do with Instant Messenger or your email and stopping or disabling it will not interfere with either. Anyway, to turn it back on, follow the same steps above, but select the "Start The Service" link in Step 7. If you used the more permanent "disable" solution, just right click and re-enable the service.

The adaware did the job. :)
Thank you everyone for your help..

Np, glad its fixed :)

I know how annoying those pop-ups could be :mad:

And yes, Adaware is Brilliant :D