Windows messenger service

[debbiew]

Hi, my mum has windows xp and office suite on her newish (about a year) computer. She has norton antivirus. She keeps getting pop ups. One from girls offering their services and another one which looks kinda official but I reckon is not. Anyone help?

it says (in windows style box) Messenger Service. Message from System to Alert. Microsoft windows has encountered an internal error. Your windows registry is corrupt. Your system may be unstable. Microsoft recommends an immediate system fix www.pcregfix.com.

 

She also gets others none of which have the microsoft bit in their address and if you visit the sites, dont have any microsoft-ness about them. I installed the Microsoft antispy ware program that I heard about on answerbank for my own 123 Mania problem (which worked thanks!) but it comes up with nothing. My thoughts were that these things were spyware.

 

Can anyone help? Please. Debbie

[mikeyp]

If your program is indeed caused by popups through the messenger service. Turning it off is the most effective way of stopping them. Click Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services

You will then see a list of all services that windows runs. Find the one named messenger. Right click on it and select properties. Then click the Stop button. And select its startup type to be disabled. Hope this stops the popups.

[mikeyp]

Oh, i meant problem sorry. Also, I would never believe a pop up that says "you have a problem, to solve it go here" it's always going to be advertising. Download adaware, spybot etc. Maybe they can find something. It might just be internet related popups though. Which are not cause by anything on your computer, just websites you visit. A popup blocker or stopping the messenger service solution i mentioned might help here.

[Kerplunk]

You need to get rid of this spyware.  Try Adaware or spybot search and destroy or both.  Ensure you update both fully before running then do a full scan. 

[stevie21]

Kerplunk, this doesn't sound like spyware that resides on the PC and needs to be removed. It sounds more like messages that are sent to debbiew's PC over the internet each time.
As mentioned, stop the Messenger service as per the instructions here or install and run Microsoft's Antispyware prog which will do it for you.
Also, use Windows Updates to fix some of the holes in your operating system.

[OBonio]

I've had this and mikeyp's solution is the way to go. They are all bogus popups.

[mouseymick]

If she still has Windows XP on her computer then they that should be the first thing to go. You can still get Windows 10 very cheaply, and then install Kaspersky to protect it.