[mrlewp]

Upon boot-up , a pop-up windows appears with the "This Page Cannot Be displayed" text.....which includes all the advice on checking internet security settings , etc.,etc.
The ONLY way to get rid of it is with Task Mgr. (ctrl/alt/del) , as there is not even the X at top right of window, NOR can you right-click on taskbar ....as nothing at all appears. (CLOSE, ie)
Right-clicking on the window produces nothing at all !! to give a clue as to its origin.
Only clue is when you use Task Mgr.... the word "Reminder" followed by the current time of day is the description provided.
Also, a very small icon at left , which appears to be an open-palm
hand with a globe of the Earth in front of the hand???
I'm thinking its to do with registering something I opted to "Remind me later"....but has been corrupted?? A .dll perhaps?
Can registry be source for answer , or msconfig??
Oh....it reappears every so often after getting rid of it !!

[Osiris]

Run spyware programs like the ones in my sig....see if that works..

[geffin]

sounds like a spyware/virus problem. Just run deep anti-virus and spyware scans, and see what you find.

[mrlewp]

find Ad-Aware easy to use and eradicate spyware. When it comes to SpyBot, I have concerns whenever Registry entries show up as problems. (same concern whenever using any sort of registry cleaner) That is.......
Does the application (Spybot S&D in this case) ...remove the entire key and contents , or just the data or values at end of the string displayed?

IOW , is it generally safe to eliminate the items listed by SpyBot that exist in the registry?
I have ignored at least 6 that appear with each scan , which relate to my free version of Download Accelerator. I'm concerned it wont function if it cant run the ads , etc. Is there one type of registry entry in DAP that I should be concerned with , and allow S&D to remove?

[mrlewp]

(follow-up) I've run Ad-Aware and SpyBot's S&D at least twice each last couple of days. I removed everything each app found of concern. This did nothing to stop the stray pop-up.
I still believe it originates from perhaps not registering a program at time of installation, and maybe things got a little screwy when finishing the install , as sometimes happens with 3rd party apps.

[Win2kpatcher]

START>RUN then type msconfig. Go to the startup tab and disable all and reboot. If it doesnt happen upon the reboot you know it is something that is starting with windows. You can then go through and check each item one by one or only keep things that you know should be actually starting up with windows and reboot for changes to take effect.

[DJ-CHRIS]

Spybot SD and adware are completly safe for your PC. Ive ran that program on at least 15 PC's hundreeds of times.

[mrlewp]

Problem solved !! If I could have done an icon search...similar to a file search , I would have found the Reminder icon mentioned , and been done with this day one.
I "Googled" this pop-up pain , and reference to "Easy Internet Sign-up" as possible cause. I opened the folder on C: drive , and sure enough , there was that hand-globe icon sitting right there.
I renamed the .exe and a .dll file with the icon , and the pop-up stopped. I had no idea this folder still presided on my HD , as I've wanted it removed after each of 3 system restores that I've done.