I had to agree to some adware to download a program I wanted, believing that I could just uninstall it later as I have done before, but this time it is very well hidden.

I have done everything I know but cannot find what is causing popup windows putting ads in my face. I have run AVG, I have run Microsoft adware, I have run Adaware, Spybot Search and Destroy, and run Panda online scan.

I have examined the running processes, I have cleaned the registry and run Crap Cleaner. I have looked in the Documents and Settings and have deleted many files there. I found one that would not let me delete it, called "gram admin.exe."

I looked in the Add Remove Programs, nothing I do not recognize.

HELP

Hi,
You have a file that is part of lop.com Spyware.
This file you have is probably located in the Folder... Application Data.
I am sorry, but have not yet found a "free" way to rid the computer of lop.com files.
If you go to http://www.google.com, and type in "gram admin.exe", without quotes, and click on Search, you will find the first link or two takes you to a complete listing of all the .exe files associated with lop.com.
It gives a link to do an online scan for this, but I am not sure if it will repair or delete it, without having to buy the software.
There is a question, prior, to this one, about getting rid of lop.com, and it no one yet knows how to do it!
Also, you might be aware that many "free" programs that are downloaded, states they contain Adware, as the one you downloaded. However, many of these programs will not continue to run, if the Adware is removed.
I do wish you the best of luck, and maybe someone here will have the specific answer as to how to get rid of all Lop.com files.
You might also try running a free scan, from:

http://www.trendmicro.com/spyware-scan/

fredg

Thank you for your information. But I finally realized that if I uninstall Zone Alarm and reinstall it, that it will ask me every time some program wants access to the internet, so that is what I did.

And sure enough, the gram admin.exe asked for access but I denied it, and NO MORE POPUPS. Not having access, also allowed me to delete the file.

Hi,
Great! Sounds like you couldn't delete the file before because it was in use!
I am so glad you got rid of it.
Thank you for the information!
Best wishes,
fredg

Here is the easiest way, took me a few hours to stumble upon it but its really about a 2 Minute Process.
1. Remove from Registry
- Click "Start/Run...", Enter "regedit"
- Go to "My Computer/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run"
- Remove the reistry "Tick Find Close Surf"
2. Hide Internet Explorer (This program thrives off IE, With out it, it is nothing)
- Go to "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer"
- Rename "iexplore.exe" to "iexplore.exeW" (Spyware will be looking for the non existent file "iexplorer.exe")
- The reason this file could not be deleted was because it was in use by another program [iexplorer.exe]
- Press "ctrl"+ "alt" + "del" to bring up the "Windows Task Manager"
- Remove all instances of "iexplorer.exe" (there may be like 20 of them, this spyware gets a little happy sometimes)
3. Remove Spyware
- There now all Connections from spyware to browser are broken
- Go to "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Tick Find Close Surf"
- Delete "Gram Admin.exe" and "Gram Admin.dat"
- Remove Folder "Tick Find Close Surf"
4. Fix Internet Explorer
- Go to "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer"
- Rename "iexplore.exeW" to "iexplore.exe"
5. Be Happy - Your Spyware is Gone