Member Avatar for JemB

just had yet another registry mechanic pop up. my system is generally pretty good but these guys take the biscuit! if their stuff was actually any good maybe they would be better off selling it on it's merits not on invading your system. or as they're so good at getting annoying spam and popups past various security measures maybe they ought to try doing security instead! or invest the time/money in making a decent product.
sorry just had to rant, feelfree to join with your pet hate popup etc

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Dani AI

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Short, practical follow-up to the thread: is right to be annoyed — those Registry Mechanic popups are a classic example of either aggressive ad/redirect behavior or "scareware" campaigns that try to look legitimate. If they appear even on reputable sites the issue is often malvertising (third‑party ads being compromised) or a persistent PUP living on the machine rather than the site itself. See Malvertising and Rogue security software for background.

Quick diagnostic checklist (do these in order so you don’t lose evidence):

  • Reproduce the popup and note exact URL, window title, and timestamp. Capture a screenshot.
  • Test in a clean environment (different user account or a live/boot USB) to see if the popups are system‑wide or tied to one profile.
  • Inspect running processes and parent/child relationships to find what spawns the popup. Sysinternals Process Explorer is ideal for this: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer
  • Check autostart locations and scheduled tasks for persistent entries; Autoruns will show almost everything that survives a reboot: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns
  • If evidence points to an in‑browser ad, use a clean browser profile or a content blocker for the short term. If it’s system level, run a reputable on‑demand scan or a rescue/boot scan and remove discovered items.
  • When in doubt, back up data and consider a clean install; deeply entrenched PUPs or rootkit behavior can be faster to remediate that way.

Tying back to replies: as noted, isolating the OS/profile helps determine scope; and ’s point about cleaning is sound — the key is to chase the process/source (use the Sysinternals tools) rather than just the popup text.

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Member Avatar for mikeandike22

i am a user of registry mechanic and i actually like their product most likely the pop-ups dont even lead to the reg mech site. You should get microsoft anti-spyware, firefox, ad-aware, and hijackthis.

Member Avatar for 'Stein

^^and ya fergot CCleaner. And Ewido is about equal/alittle better then adaware.


(heh, see what happens when ya spend all your time posting in the virus forum? ;))

Member Avatar for JemB

got em all guys! and part of my work is security and system recovery. the popups are genuine and from usually reputable sites. but hey i guess somethings got to get thru now and again.

Member Avatar for mikeandike22

or you could go all out and use linux which would be the ultimate choice in trying to do anything.

Member Avatar for JemB

ah! now there's an idea. tried Ubuntu for a while, and about to switch to Suse 10.1 but needs more ram in my linux box cos it wont install on less than 512. from what i've seen it looks good

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