do you have Paint Shop Pro on your pc? if so it sounds like it is having some type of problem, check to see if the program is running if so shut it down, also try a simple reboot. I would also check in msconfig and see if it is in your startup menu if so remove it from the start up menu, when you change the start up menu then reboot you will get a message pop up, on that just click do not show this message.

just be sure if you decide to use zonealarm you get the free version not the trial version and do not get any of that added stuff. ZoneAlarm ® Firewall that should be the direct download for the free za as was stated as you go along with a firewall and it asks you to allow it to access the internet the ones you know for sure like your antivirus and your browsers you can put a check mark in the remember this box and it will no longer ask you for that one unless you do an update to the program then it will ask again and you tell it to remember again. You do not want to give server rights to anything so if the box pops up asking for server rights say no then it will pop up asking for just permission to access that one you can allow if it is something you are familiar with. If you do not recogonize the name of what is asking for permission you say no, then if you see that something you were trying to use would not open you know that was the thing that was asking for permission, so you can know to allow it next time. That generic 32 one that had you worried you MUST allow that or you can not do anything, that is a process you need to set to always allow. First time you use any program the firewall will have to ask you for permission, say your music player for example, tell it yes to permission and check the box for remember and you are done with that it will not ask you again. At first it seems daunting but once you get thorugh that initial flood of setting up what can and can not access then you rarely ever get bothered by it. What you are trying to prevent is allowing something that you are not familiar with which may be malware that got on your computer and is trying to phone home to whoever wrote the malware and it will then be sending info from your pc to that person. that is why it is very important not to just always click to allow, know what you are allowing. If you do not recognize a name copy and paste it in google and see what you find out usually you can tell right away what program it is. also with most firewalls you can click for details and it will give you info that can help tell what is asking for access. I am totally self taught and also one of the older crowd, we were all newbies at one time! but please if you do not put in a firewall DO go turn on the one you have with xp it is better than nothing, however if you put one in you must turn that xp one off you can not have 2 firewalls.

W7 & W8 has a built in sandbox type program called "steady state" many do not know exist on your PC it prevents change to the PC by maleware, it is configured into the guest account of every Microsoft PC, however when you set up your PC up the guest act. is disabled so to use this feature you must enable guest account, then log out of admin: act. and login using guest act. Then when something trys to install or get in, a message will pop up that unless you provide admin. rights it will not install. If you do want to install a printer or software, you must log out and come back in using admin act. Or you can simply download Sandboxie, which isolates your browser and prevents maleware or pop ups from getting in and it's Free I've added the link to it below. Here is a link that might be useful: Sandboxie

Thanks to both of you. I found "hpwuSchd Application"in the start menu, but as the popup happened well after startup, I don't think that is what is doing it. More likely is what I found in HP Solutions. I hadn't even looked there before, and there were checkmarks in all three categories for automatically checking for updates. I changed them. Actually, this popup would not have alarmed me, were it not for the fact that it had no button there at all, and right after that, Windows 7 sent a popup about backing up, which I had not set for Mondays (though I had tried to do a manual backup a few hours earlier), so I got the idea that maybe my clicking on the HP popup triggered a key logger or something, which triggered the backup notice in order to capture my Admin password. Is such a thing even possible? I couldn't even close the popup using Task Manager. That was upsetting, too. Anyway, full scans with both MBAM and Superantispyware didn't find anything alarming, only a lot of adcookies in the case of the latter. The popup I got was pale blue and had a number of crosses or stars in it. Is that what you got, Raven? And was there actually a radio button, or did the whole thing act as a button? I was going to complain to HP about the shame of them (a computer company after all!) creating and sending out a popup with nowhere to click on. Now that I know that you got ignored, I won't waste my time. Aggravating, isn't it!