Absolutely- malicious programs called "adware", "spyware", and "hijackware".

You can get infested with these nasties simply by visiting certain web sites; you don't even have to download anyhting (knowingly, anyway).

I'm moving this thread to our Security forum, which is where we focus on these issues. Have a read through the other threads there to find out just how prevalent these problems are, and how to protect yourself from them. A good, short synopsis of the whole mess can be found here:

http://www.computercops.biz/postt7736.html

Might I suggest Ad-Aware and Spybot

Download the latest version of Ad-Aware at ADAWARE

Download SPYBOT

How to setup Ad-Aware and Spy-Bot S&D
http://www.zerosrealm.com/scanning.php

And after that, please do the following:


Download 'Hijack This!'.HERE

Unzip (extract) it to a folder of its own.Like c:\HJT\hijackthis.exe , Then Doubleclick HijackThis.exe (in the new folder), and hit "Scan".
When the scan is finished, the "Scan" button will change into a "Save Log" button.
Press that, then Ctrl-A to Select All, and copy its contents here. for hijackthis,most of what it lists will be harmless or even essential, don't fix anything yet.



reboot computer and post a new hijackthis log