pascal21

[pascal21]

l am a newbie to this forum and am currently running xp home, i have recently began receiving pop ups and a search page that isnt my requested. i suspect that spyware is the culprit so l have tried using 'spybot' and 'adaware' in the their free downloads versions. problem is that although their free versions find the problems they wont let me remove them unless i upgrade to the paid for versions. dont want to touch the registry

[PrntRhd]

You ARE a newbie, the real Spybot Search & Destroy and real AdAwareSE do not force you to upgrade to remove anything. They are free for personal use.
You may have several malware infections, I would suggest you download Hijack This (http://www.subratam.org/?page=removal), extract it to a folder on the hard drive, scan, then copy the log to the Forums in a new thread named HJT, and the problem under Applications and Security. Post the complete log. Wait for our experts to review the log before proceeding.
You may also be getting Windows Messenger popups, but let's deal with one problem at a time.