Okay, there are two main causes of popups. The most common one is from adverts on websites. Those are easy to get rid of - all you need is a decent popup blocker. I use the Google toolbar, which is very effective and only rarely lets a popup through. You can also easily disable the popup blocker for a website, or just one popup if it's blocking something by mistake. I've got no experience with Yahoo Antispy, but from what I've heard it has been programmed to ignore some spyware on purpose. You'd be better off ditching it and using something like Spybot or Ad-Aware.

The other main cause of popups is from adware. That's software that exists on your computer for the sole purpose of displaying ads to make money for someone else. Adware often sends back information like your browsing history. Spyware, BTW, is basically adware but withou the ad-displaying part and with more of the snooping part.

You can get rid of adware with a decent antispyware program. There are two out there that are considered by professionals to be worth getting - Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. Both are free and well-supported. I use Spybot myself, but it's more of an expert's program - Ad-Aware is easier to use for someone new to computers and antispyware utilities. Don't forget to keep them up to date and run them often (every couple of weeks is usually enough).

Note that adware and spyware is generally easy to avoid if you use common sense and don't run software that you're not sure about. This includes things like ActiveX programs which a lot of websites will try to cram down your throat. You should only download software that you know is trustworthy.


Hmm... after reading your post again I notice you are having errors. Could you post details of the errors and popups - it's generally a lot easier to troubleshoot stuff when we have an error message to go on. Take screen shots and upload them if needed.