MSN Messenger update: How do I get rid of this stuff?

[Mahdi]

I donwlaoded an update of msn messenger yesterday, now I've got like ten ads on my desktop, which keep reapearing after I delte them, my home page keeps changing every little while to some ad site or with a "Search now" window thing keeps poping up with it, and some task bar keeps appearing ont he top of my screen. How do Ig et rid of all this crap?

[Gobalopper]

What site did you download it from?

[Mahdi]

dunno, I jsut signed into msn messenger yesterday, and it gave me a mesage sayign that there was a new version to download, do I want to download it? I clicked yes, it downlaoded, and all this crap came up.

I even adwared my C drive and the crap's still coming up.

[Gobalopper]

Was it a message from someone or was it something that took you to Microsoft's site? You might want to do a virus scan.

[Mahdi]

no, it was from microsoft, I've gotten it a few times before.

[Mahdi]

Here we go:

http://www.msgplus.net/index.php?view=updateinfo

[Gobalopper]

http://msgplus.mybboard.com/announcements.php?fid=12

http://msgplus.mybboard.com/showthread.php?tid=11504

[Mahdi]

That's retarded, nobody reads those agreement things, they're huge.

[Andrew]

Don't download 3rd party software. What is so great about msn plus anyways? (I have friends who have gotten it, but I see no point in getting it; probably only uses up more resources.)

Does it just make it look prettier, or is their an actual purpose to it?

[Mahdi]

Well, apparently that guy gob linked to lied. I uninstalled messenger plus but still have allt he spy/adware and stupid taskbar.

[Nyarlathotep]

What you might want to try is to uninstall MSN completely. Once done, re-install it, without the plus package.

What OS are you using?

[Mahdi]

Int he end, I had to uninstall msn completley, then uninstall the taskbar and each of the sponsor program things by hand, one at a time. Stupid POS.

[Nyarlathotep]

So you fixed it (in the end) ?

[Terror]

You can also download dmsn (Dynamic MSN) which is java based, not created by microsoft and has lot's of funny options like translating english into german, spanish, portugese etc., breezer talk and much much more.

[Atomic Mitten]

I have MSN Plus without any pop ups.

Download Tweak Manager XP and it comes with an app called ad blocker exe.

It works great, I never get bothered now by pop ups.

Also download the Google tool bar for Internet Explorer this also has a pop up blocker.At the present time my Google toolbar is blocking 146 pop ups ! ;)

[Mahdi]

I think I got it all cleaned up. Won't know until I see if any of that stuff pops up again in the next few days.

[Dunenewt]

How do I find out what spyware/adware i have on my pc?

[Mahdi]

download "adware" it's a program that finds and deletes the stuff. I'm not sure of the link, just search for it and it'l come up

[Atomic Mitten]

www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware

www.tipsdr.com/tweaks-for-windows-xp.html

Here is the link for Adaware. ;)

And Tweak XP Manager.

[Atomic Mitten]

Well Mahdi looks like you got the Smibag.A worm.

Try visiting symantec .com and download the fix file to remove it.

I guess you didn't update your anti virus software recently ? ;)