Thank You Azinoh, shaboom, ravencajun, minnie and damccoy. Your information is very much appreciated. Minnie you asked me this question. not to steal the thread thirdfrt but what is your opinion on Bazooka? I've had that for centuries it seems TIA To be honest with you I am unfamiliar with the software Bazooka but, I did look it up to see what program you were talking about. I have never used Bazooka and so I am unable to give you an opinion on it. Sorry. Maybe there is someone here that is more knowledgeable about the program that can give you an opinion on it. not to steal the thread thirdfrt Minnie, I don't feel like you stole the thread at all, unfortunately I was not able to answer your question and anyone who is knowledgeable about Bazooka is more than welcome to answer your question on this thread, I don't mind at all. For those of you who mentioned Malwarebytes, Superantispyware and Spyware Blaster, I have them on this OS. I have had Spyware Blaster for quite awhile now and I downloaded the other two last year. I am very pleased with these programs and appreciate the help that was given to me so that I could download them. I use to have AdAware when it was a good program and thought I would take the chance with the current AdAware and I have become very disappointed with it. You are right it is not the same and that is why I want to remove it. I have given my son the links for the programs that you have recomended and for the removal of AdAware. It just seemed odd that we were both experiencing the same problem with our firewalls and like I said that was the only thing that we had in common on our computers. My sister and Nephew both had problems and they uninstalled AdAware and their computers started working correctly. About Irfanview, I think I will remove the old one rather than write over it and start fresh. I don't need anymore conflicts. One last thing I downloaded Auslogics and was surprised how well it did. My computer was really starting to act up and at first I didn't think I was going to be able to run a check disk. I messed with it and finally got it to work and after I ran the check disk I used the Auslogics Disk Defrag and my computer came back to life so to speak. "Smiles" Well I think I have covered everything, again thanks to all who responded to this thread. You have been very helpful and I sure do appreciate the help. thirdfrt!!!

Makes no difference which way you uninstall. The Windows' Add/Remove utility and the application uninstall are both pointers to the same uninstaller. To uninstall in an alternative way you would have to use a program such as REVO. However, though it is more powerful and complete its first process is still to use the basic uninstaller before proceeding with additional actions. The more I use REVO the more I like it and recommend it; particularly on those stubborn applications like Acrobat/Adobe Reader. Regardless of which way you choose, when completed a manual search of the HD for orphan files is a good idea. DA

AdAware had problems about 4 years ago if my time machine remembers correctly. It took a while to get straightened out and I suspect they will try extra hard not to travel that road again. Perhaps you need to clean out all the odd bits on your computer with a disk cleanup and try again. Like the others, I have had no problems updating and running mine.

Neal I take it you are a little intimidated with the inner workings of your computer? Nothing wrong with that. I was terrified the first few times I took the side cover off. However you must decide if you are going to get past that and fix it. You have asked for help and it has been given but you do not appear to have tried many of the suggestions so far, or have not told us what happened when you did try things. So far we know you cannot use Internet Explorer so you cannot download and install necessary updates from Microsoft. Nor can you go to online scans because most if not all of those are set up for IE. We know your AVG is at least 6 months out of date and the wrong version making it vitually useless. We know you do not have a firewall so anybody and everybody with the savvy can (and probably have) attack your computer and the dozens of phone home spies installed on your machine are taking possession. We know you cannot get to anti virus sites, for me that says virus's and trojans are in control of your computer. At this state it is pointless to worry about if your teenager's actions have caused the problems. Those actions may not have helped but the responsibility here is yours because you failed to take precautions needed for safe computing. From the computer you are using to post here download the free AVG 7.5 from here then from here download the free AVG anti spyware and from here download the free AdAwareSE and from here download the free Zonealarm firewall and finally from here download Crap Cleaner. Save all these to a thumb drive or burn to CD. Now on your computer and remove the cable to the internet for now. Then click Start, click Control panel, click Add/Remove programs. Remove AVG, AdAware and anything else that pertains to safety but is out of date. Install and run Crap Cleaner at the default settings, this will remove all the excess files and fragments of programs left by untidy uninstallers from all over your computer. Install AVG anti virus, AVG anti spyware, AdAware and Zonealarm. Allow each to do a full scan while still disconnected from the internet and allow Zonalarm to start. Then re-connect your internet connection and open each of these programs and get the latest updates. Then run the full scan with each again. Then visit Microsoft for all the Windows updates you are missing, I asume you have WindowsXP? Now Neal, if you are fearful of any of this say so and hopefully another poster will come along and tell you that what I have suggested will work - or disagree and tell you different things to try. There is nothing in this message to harm your computer.