today, somehow on my desktop there was a thing saying warning big brother watching. down the bottom it said removal instructions. Anyway, I clicked on it and it seems as if it is an ad for some kind of spyware. Anyways, I got rid of it after the thing to restore active desktop came up. Now, I can't access my search, or control panel or anything. Could this thing have put a virus on my computer? Anyway to access my control panel?

welcome to spyware, download ad-aware and run it. and never use IE again :D

what is this ad-aware, and is it free? Unfortunetly I have IE through aol so I can't get around that.

Yes use adware or a spyware remover of your choice. Hoepfully spayware will become completely illegal soon. They are basically viruses but there payload is to monitor and report vs be destructive.

Originally posted by faulkkev:
Yes use adware or a spyware remover of your choice. Hoepfully spayware will become completely illegal soon. They are basically viruses but there payload is to monitor and report vs be destructive. Yes and when they become illegal we'll never have to worry about them again. I know what you mean but there is always somebody out there willing to screw with other people. For the fun of it, for a challenge, or for money.

Can anyone give me a site where I can download the ad-aware for free? I did find one site, downloaded it, and it said they found some threats. They then asked for my registration # and if I did not have one to click here. I did that, and it took me to am page where you have to pay 24.95 or something. Are there any that remove the adware for free?

www.lavasoftusa.com (http://www.lavasoftusa.com)

Thanks, I already went there, downloaded it, and I think it solved my problem. Thanks for all the help everyone

My brother-in-law got duped into clicking one of those "you have spyware installed" popup ads the clicking that ad download software that hijacked his IE menu bar. No matter what address he tried to go to,it went to their web site. Luckily he had XP and call me immediately. We did a system restore from the previous day and solved the problem.

I got rid of that adware thing, and now can get into my control panel and everything, but what is weird is that yesterday, when I came down to my computer there was a little box down at the bottom of my toolbar. with a www in it. I clicked it, and a porn pic came up. I've never had something like that happen, my browser was not even online when it must have put that there. I ran the ad-aware again, and hopefully got rid of that. It should be illegal, what if a kid was the one who turned the computer on?

go out online and get spybot too. It will find things that adaware misses. I assume you are running Nortons or MacAfee virus scanners, if not get one and run a virus scan. Also clean out your internet temp files and cookies. Also click "start" "run" "msconfig" "startup" and look for files that are not the basic ones needed to start the computer. I always have a virus program running to scan all incoming and outgoing files. I run adaware and spybot weekly or more often if something funny is happening. I also clean out the temp files and take a look at the startup menu. Way to many badguys trying to screw up the system just for giggles or to get your identity to not be diligent. Good luck.