Annoying ads that look like error messages in win2000

[zogmool]

In win2000, there is this message thing that comes up at random. It looks something like a warning from a program. It has advertisments that I don't care about, and the option to click "OK".

I've read about a messanger in the OS and how to make some windows messanger available to uninstall, and have uninstalled it. At least I think I did... I edited some file (I forget the name of it) and removed "hide" from line mentioned in a how-to guide, then uninstalled the messanger from the windows part of the add-remove thingy. The messages still come up from nowhere. Did I miss something, or is this something different than that windows messanger?

[Iceman]

Download AdAware and run it it will fsh out any spyware or anything. Also try Start>Run>msconfig. YOu can monitor what is starting up when you turn your computer on, turn off any suspicious files.

[zogmool]

Good advice, but I've done both. (Accept, there's no msconfig in win2000. I have a program for that) I really don't know what this thing is. It's not a pop-up ad in an explorer window.

[zogmool]

It says, "Messenger Service".

Edit: Yup, that's what I was afraid of. It turned out to be a trojan, Litmus.

[Juan]

If you want Msconfig for Win2000 grab it from a WinXP disk(this give you full fuctionality) or from a Win98 or ME disk(very limited in options).