AumHa Forums

Anymore a true malware popup window will use features of the Window to infection your computer. Just clicking where it might say "Close this window"; or even if offered, the traditional red "X" at top right is likely wired to install an infector.

1. Try "ALT+F4" first. This is the IE Keyboard sequence to close the "topmost window", which should be your popup.

2. Or, right click the Task Bar (if an entry for the popup is shown there) and choose "Close". (It is sometimes, no usually, but sometimes possible to simply close the open Tab in your Browser.)

3. Or, the safest in all cases: Bring up Task Manager. You can do this with a right click on the Task Bar. Under the tab "Applications" you should see the Popup entry. Left-click once to highlight the entry, then Left-click once at bottom right to "End Task". If after fifteen seconds the entry does not disappear, repeat. (There is no harm in stacking up multiple "End Task" requests.)

See, for a discussion: http://netsecurity.about.com/od/popupsa ... p.htm?nl=1

["When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose" - Bob Dylan]

Bill

Thank you for this thread.

Many years ago I read that "pop-ups" might have a "Close" button that would actually install a virus, and the red cross in the top right corner was the only safe way out.
I immediately decided that what might be safe yesterday is not certain to be safe tomorrow, and decided I would not trust the red cross either. Thank you for this thread which encourages me that I am no longer a lonely paranoid, and that what I anticipated is now a reality !!!

My actual experience of "pop-ups" is that they come with a web-page, and if I switch to a different Tab in FireFox the pop-up disappears until I click back on the "guilty" Tab; and the pop-up is gone forever if I close the related Tab. I have never encountered a pop-up that has an independant life that would remain after the Tab was closed - probably a matter of luck and being careful what I visit.

Thank you for your warning. The next time I have an unwelcome guest I will look on the task bar and if a new icon is there I will use Alt+F4 as suggested. If there is no new icon I will FIRST try closing down the related Tab which is adequate for simple pop-ups, and leaves me with a Google search page with all the other targets I have yet to sample. The problem with Alt+F4 is that for a simple pop-up it will close the entire browser - not just the Tab that went to the dodgy site. I will welcome advice upon anything I may have overlooked.

It would be very informative if you could give a couple of web pages, or links to a couple of pages, which would give a couple of pop-ups, one simple without independent life, and one persistent that really needs Alt+F4, perhaps with suggested clues upon what to look out for so that we can learn to recognise which is what before we actually touch one.

Needless to say, I am not wanting any genuine malicious payload with the pop-up !!!
If examples are posted it would probably be a good idea to lock the thread and armour plate the forum to prevent any hacker from adding his own payload to the examples. There is a limit to how much reality I want to experience !!!

Regards
Alan

p.s.

Just followed a very short trail of links from here, I got to
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=28580
which took me to
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/commun ... m0704.mspx
which has a floating pop-up, which tells me that Microsoft is conducting a survey and asks me if I wish to participate. I have the options of a "Yes" button and a "No" button, and of course the dreaded red cross.
Guess what - just to be safe I simply closed the Tab and the problem went away.

Alan