Hi everyone, Thank you to all who answered. I have McAfee and Ad-Aware. I tried Don's suggestion and was able to see the processes that are running. I don't have the faintest idea what these processes are and therefore do not know which ones if any are not suppose to be there. But my computer seems to be running better after running Ad-Aware once and McAfee twice. I'm still seeing the pop up that says a program is running when I turn off the computer. I always close out all the programs I'm using before I shut down so that is still a mystery. Thanks again. Cindy
On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 5:08 PM, Don Cooper <wavyca...@gmail.com> wrote: > Also I should add that not all programs like these 'play by the rules' > You may have to try and hunt them down and kill them. > The result of application murder - as I like to call it - may result in a > confused system registry. > The way to do this is to find the culprit on your hard drive and erase the > executable or the directory it resides in. > Sometimes a registry will rebuild itself appropriately when you do this - > other times it may not and you will get a pesky reminder every once and a > while that the system cant find some program what you really didnt want > anyway! > To find the culprit - you can do a system search for a file named > [application you have the hate for]. > You may have to run 'Regedit', go into the edit tab and do a "find" for the > name of that program. > When it finds it in the registry, it will indicate where it resides on your > hard drive. > > Ideally, every program should have a means to delete itself, but > unfortunately the world aint a perfect place (and sometimes even the > lawmakers and police are corrupt and are only serving their interests and > not that of the public.) > > In a nutshell - > WaVy > > > On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 4:31 PM, Don Cooper <wavyca...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> It varies based on what operating system you are using. >> Hopefully it isnt Vista - 'cause I'm deliberately Vista Illiterate :-) >> But you can try the following if its Win2000 or XP: >> Hold Cntl-Alt-Del >> Then a panel/popup thingy should show up that has tabs such as >> Applications Processes Performance Networking Users >> Select Processes and identify the program that is doing this >> You might want to write down the name of the process that you know you >> dont like >> Use the Start 'button' on the lower left hand of your screen and find >> "Control Panel" - it should be somewhere in there >> Then go into control panel - find the icon that says "Add or remove >> programs" >> You might be able to match up the name of the offending executilbe with >> one displayed in the list of Processes, >> If so - delete it. >> Of course you could have selected the offending process by it's image name >> in the Task Manager's Processes tab, >> then gone down to the End Process button and hit it. But if the process >> is spawned by the User Name 'SYSTEM' it won't let you end it. >> Also, you'd have to go back through the same process every time - so it'd >> be better to try and wipe out the app rather than stopping it. >> >> There are viral ware and spyware products available from McAfee and >> Symantic - I've not always had total satifsfaction with these. >> >> And of course - the only way to get rid of REALLY nasty spyware and >> malware is to wipe out EVERYTHING with a byte by byte disk rewriter and >> start all over again with a fresh operating system. >> >> -WaVy >> (not responcible for financial, temporal or relationship losses due to any >> advice given in this forum - use entirely at your own risk) >> >> >> >> On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 3:42 PM, Cynthia Lee <cynthiale...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> Greetings all, >>> Can anyone tell me 1) how I can tell if an unwanted program is running >>> behind the scene on my computer and 2) if so how do I get rid of it? >>> Thanks, Cindy >>> >> >> >
