Annoying Pop-ups!

Often I get asked, “How do I get rid of pop-ups?” or, “What would make my computer slow?”. It could be hardware related. It could be that the web page you visited has Advertisements that “pop-up” in your face to get you to buy. These are legitimate reasons but, odds are it because of something else.

So what is going on? You probably have some sort of Virus, Adware, Malware, or Spyware that’s causing these annoying pop-ups to take over your computer and slow things down to the point of frustration.

You may say, “but I have Anti-virus protection software”. That may be true but, no anti-virus software is 100% effective. Some are more so than others however. I’m not going to talk about which is best in this post. The point of this post is to help you understand that if you’re getting frequent pop-up ads and web browser redirects (meaning you try to go to one website but it takes you to another) then it’s time to take action. How do you get rid of them and how can I speed up my computer?

Here are some tools I use but let me forewarn you. There is software you need and a lot of patience. Plus some manual work is going to need to be done. If you’re tech savvy then you’ll be able to do this no problem and probably already know how to. If you’re a little computer challenged then you may want to call a computer support technician/computer ninja. 😀

So let’s get to that list of software. Malewarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware Portable (I don’t like installing the actual program because it’s too memory intensive but you could always just uninstall when your done), AdwCleaner, Your Anti-Virus software (meaning whatever you have now if anything). Me being a computer tech, I also use Techsuite from RepairTech as well. It has tons of scanning and cleanup tools in it. Anyway, now scan away with everything. With each of these tools, it’ll probably clean everything you’ll have to worry about but many times there will be residual things left behind which will have to be manually cleaned up. Files and registry settings. The average user will not want to mess with the registry because you can do a whole lot of damage and you should always backup before making any serious changes like that anyway.

I know, you were hoping to have a simple solution. Well, the simple solution was to just be well protected in the first place with the proper software and regular updates. Once you have the Annoying pop-ups, it gets a little more challenging. I can offer my help in this area. Unfortunately it’s very tough to give you the 100% walk-through and cleanup of your machine in a blog post. It’s better to just get a trusted and professional technician to do the job for you. It will actually save you time and money in the long run because time is money, right?

Well, I hope this post gave you a glimpse of help at least. We’re always willing to give a helping hand. If your in the area, look us up.

What software should I have for protection? Well, the list is long but I’ll tell you that I’ve had pretty good luck with AVG Internet Security and Emsisoft Internet Security. I won’t get into all the ins and outs of what to use in this post but, I will say that you need to have something. In this day and age, to not be protected is just asking for it. Don’t put yourself through the pain of what happens when you’re not.

Are there any software suggestions out there that any of you may have? What tools do you use to do virus/malware/spyware cleanup?