Okay, so I think I'm back in business. Thank you Lydia for giving me the information needed to get rid of whatever was wrong with my computer!

AND I found the best free pop up blocker EVER!!! The ones I had downloaded weren't working, so I found this one...and it even keeps track of how many it's blocked! So far (and I've only been on here for about ten minutes now) it's blocked 17 popups!

Anyway, just thought I'd share the site in case anyone else is having trouble with popups. It gives you a google toolbar, but it's soooooooooooo totally worth it, plus, the bar is kinda cool.

http://toolbar.google.com/

Howdy:

I would stay away from the Google Toolbar if I were you...

6. Google's toolbar is spyware:
With the advanced features enabled, Google's free toolbar for Explorer phones home with every page you surf, and yes, it reads your cookie too. Their privacy policy confesses this, but that's only because Alexa lost a class-action lawsuit when their toolbar did the same thing, and their privacy policy failed to explain this. Worse yet, Google's toolbar updates to new versions quietly, and without asking. This means that if you have the
toolbar installed, Google essentially has complete access to your hard disk every time you connect to Google (which is many times a
day). Most software vendors, and even microsoft, ask if you'd like an updated version. But not Google. Any software that
updates automatically presents a massive security risk.

This and more info can be found HERE

Murray

...if you have the toolbar installed, Google essentially has complete access to your hard disk every time you connect to Google

I think that statement is a load of bull. How about reading the actual toolbar privacy policy and Google's full privacy policy. I believe the "Google's toolbar is spyware" assertion is also adequately addressed.

Of course Google places a cookie on your hard disk. So does Answerpool and tens of millions of other websites.

I'm afraid I have to agree with Tom on this one.
The site you quoted from is a bit suspect in itself.

See Google-watch-watch.
What's next Google Watch^3 ?

If you don't like Google Cookies you can easly disable them.
In fact as a test I tossed Google in my "Restricted Sites" and The Google bar And all searches I've tried so far work great.

Yep, I checked, no new Google cookie.
Mike b. (AKA Byter)

As per the "Full Privacy Policy"..

"Google does this by storing user preferences in cookies and by tracking user trends and patterns of how people search. Google may share information about you with advertisers, business partners, sponsors, and other third parties"

If that doesn't amount to ad and spyware, then nothing does..

Murray

Murray, you're quoting only the phrases which appear to support your assertions. Let's see what you've left out --

...we only divulge aggregate information about our users and will not share personally identifiable information...

For example, we may disclose how frequently the average Google user visits Google, or which other query words are most often used with the query word "Linux."

I love the Google toolbar...and you can opt out of the really egregious "spyware-esque" stuff.

Tom:

All they are saying is that they will not share your personal info - name, address, phone, etc - all personnally identifiable.. It says NOTHING about email addresses which can remain anonymous depending on your email client..

Murray

"Google does not collect any unique information about you (such as your name, email address..."; "...we only divulge aggregate information about our users...".

For those of you on XP, wait until Service Pack 2 is released The pop up blocker that is installed is even more aggressive than that of the google toolbar

I have been beta testing it now for two months and although, occasionally, it's a bit of a pain, it's good to see Micro$oft taking things seriously

I've had the google taskbar for a long time. I am very comfortable with it on my computer.

It's a staple on all the pcs on my home network, except my XP beta machine, along with Spywareguard, AVG and my firewalls

I pretty much like my Zone Alarm as I can configure exactly what I want it to block. I am hoping that I can choose not to install the pop-up blocker in SP2. Thanks for the info, putasoultions, I might have missed it when reading the updates.

Blocking pop ups though is really only a temporary fix. The vast majority of times, pop ups are caused by programs installed surreptitiously without the users knowing

I know that Bedstor has advocated installing Ad-aware and Spybot, and I back up this up wholeheartedly

Spybot
Adaware

Both are freeware and cost nothing but a small amout of harddrive space

Update them both before running both programmes and have them fix anything they find.

When you have run and fixed everything with Spybot Search and Destroy and AdAware, you may need to reboot after scanning, as not everything can be removed when Windows is running

Update and scan weekly, just as you would your anti virus program and overall you'll find you have fewer problems and popups