A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 Scary program has entered my system!!!

Has anyone heard of a program called AdDestroyer?
I somehow ended up on a three day trial piriode with it and don't know where it came from.
I simply turned on my computer yesterday, a pop up(I think) came up kind of like those warning you computer clock may be wrong. I don't remember what it actualy said but when a said no another one came up and said are you shure if you click no then it will load on, so I said yes. Then two little boxes poped up on my toolbar with the time on it and another pop up came up saying addestroyer has detected a parisite on your computer that is used to track your actions on the internet to create a profile of you for marketing purposes. Do you want addestroyer to remove this file?
I said no because AdDestroyer is the thing that just infultrated my computer some how. I don't know what this is and how it got here and how to get rid of it!! It has no uninstal program that I've noticed yet. Please help, I'm Frightened !!!

What operating system are you running? If I know which one I can help you get rid of the program.

If you are running a version of Windows, you need to go into your control panel, & click on add/remove programs. There will be a list of programs installed on your pc...highlight the program you want removed & then click the remove button. This should take it out of your system.

I hate ad destroyer too...it ended up on my pc out of the blue too, but it was easy to get rid of. I do use ad aware though...I do NOT like having programs download themselves to my pc without my knowledge & ad aware is great at making sure that doesn't happen.

... Do meen what internet program? I don't know alot about computers.
I have internet explorer if thats what you meen?
If you meen like windows, I have windows98.
Thanks.

Windows 98 is what I meant...ok, go to your start button at the left hand bottom corner of your computer. Click it & you will see a link to your "Control Panel". Click the control panel & once inside there will be a link to "Add/Remove Programs" click it & go inside. Inside you will see a long list of all the programs you have installed on your computer. Find the AD DESTROYER program & click on it once & then hit the REMOVE button. This should take care of it for you.

Thanks chrissy,
I'm going to get to that right now.

...Hey I don't have a link to my controll panal in my start button. What are you trying to pull here Chrissy? ... I just use my computer to get the control panle. We removed many things from the start button so that may be why it's not there.

lol, well however you have to get to the control panel...the steps should still be the same to get rid of the program:) I am running XP. so maybe I have just forgotten how 98 is set up...it's been a few years since I used windows 98. Hope this helps you:)

You can also get to the control panel by double-clicking the "my computer" icon on your desktop. Then double-click on "Control Panel".

just as I was reading this the program came up again that seemed to start all this. Nothing happened this time but where did this pop up come from? TopText iLookup 2.0 is the program. Do you think something is still in my system cause how would a pop up come up in here?

I run 98 and you can access the control panel on your start button by going into settings......there you will see control panel......I hope I never get this.....sounds like a pain.....I run ad aware too chrissy....all the time....

Apples,

On Windows 98 Operating System:

Begin with desktop displayed and no taskbar buttons on the taskbar.

To open Control Panel:

1. Click START button [on the left hand corner].

2. Point to SETTINGS

3. Click Control Panel

4. The Control Panel folder window opens.

5. Look for the "Add/Remove Programs".

6. Right click the "Add/Remove Programs".

7. Click Open

8. The Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box opens.

You will see 3 tabs: [Install/Unstall], [Windows Setup] and [Startup Disk]

9. Click the Windows Setup tab.

Follow instructions to add or delete programs.
[See Chrissy's second post with Windows 98 in it.]

Info from DDC Publishing by Margaret Brown.

See also the suggestions mentioned above by Chrissy, Cindy and Loz.

Thanks every one. Everything seems to be cleaned out that seems bad. I don't know where that pop up came from though. I had removed everything by then but nothing else happend after it came up. I just closed it and went on. If you end up thinking of something else that may have happend feel free to bring it up again

Apples: If you go to the Freebie Forum, and read the items listed under "Your computer's/internet security", there has been a bit of banter back and forth about pop up ads and being more secure on the internet. The sites listed and advice given may indeed help you out too! It's alot to digest, but we really need to keep our computers running ship shape! I recently had one of my old computers crash and I ended up having to re-format the entire thing right back to DOS and start everything from scratch again. (What a huge pain). Hope the information in the Freebie Forum is useful to you!

Chrissy, that was all well and good but I have the same problem with this AdDestroyer and no way to uninstal it and when I go to the "Add and Remove Programs" tool and try to remove via that option I get this message "An error occurred while trying to remove AdDestroyer. It may already been uninstalled. Would you like to remove AdDestroyer from the Add Remove programs list? (Yes) (No)" so hwat do you do then? I had anohter program that did not come with an uninstal tool and when I tried to remove it via the "Add and Remove" option and got the same "An error occurred while trying to remove AdDestroyer. It may already been uninstalled. Would you like to remove AdDestroyer from the Add Remove programs list? (Yes) (No)" message I clicked 'Yes' and it removed it from the "Add and Remove" list but did not remove it from my system and still have it. I am not sure if yo uwere shooting in the dark or that this actually worked for you.

if it still there. look in your tempary files you should be able to deleat from there.or go in to your program files and deleat from there.hope this helps.

IS it possible that this could be the result of some spyware? That stuff is awful and you can get it without even knowing it! My husband watches The Screen Savers on G4TechTV and one thing that they like is Spybot Search and Destroy....its free. Here is a link to the site where you can get it. I know that there are 2 other ones that they like. I am trying to find them, but for now, here is the link to Spybot. It may get the adware off of your computers.

Spybot Search & Destroy