JerryB

Oliver Thanks for your reply. I don't know what a "fly-by" installation is, but Netscape IS my browser of choice. I don't use IE at all. I never purposely installed Pest Patrol. I cannot get rid of it and neither Norton or Spysweeper seem to find anything improper. No matter how many times I delete the registry key, SOMETHING keeps on putting the key back. I ran HijackThis a short time ago, and guess what it finds: O4 - HKLM\..\RunOnce: [ppupdstub] C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\Scanner\PPUPDS~1.EXE "C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\Scanner\ppctl.dll" "C:\DOCUME~1\JERRYB~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\PPCTLD~1.PPU" Yes, it's baaaccccckkkkk..... Again, NONE of these files exist on my computer, yet some process keeps on inserting this key into my registry. There does not seem to be anyone in the entire world who knows what this is. Thanks for your help.

Mike -- Yes I did read it. The problem is that I cannot get rid of the registry key. No matter how many times I delete the Runonce startup entry key, it comes back. Something in my computer keeps on resetting the key and I have no idea what is doing it or how. That's what I was hoping someone could help me with. Jerry

If "Pest Patrol" is installed in my computer, it did so without my permission. I have no idea what Pest Patrol is and I do not own it and I never installed it. Furthermore, there is no such program listed with Windows. The name is certainly appropriate. What a pest.

Every time I start my computer I get an error message that Windows cannot find a program it is trying to load. The program is identified as: "C:\PROGRAM~1\COMMON~1\Scanner\PPUPD~1.EXE" CCleaner shows the following startup entry in the Registry: HKLM:Runonce ppupdstub C:\PROGRAM~1\COMMON~1\Scanner\PPUPD~1.EXE "C:\PROGRAM~1\COMMON~1\Scanner\ppctl.dll" I delete the entry. When I reboot, the same error occurs. Something IN my computer keeps resetting this Registry key. I have also tried to locate the files ppupdstub.exe and ppctl.dll on my computer but they do not exist. There is no such folder as C:\Program Files\Common Files\Scanner. Current updated version of Webroot Spysweeper does not identify any threat, nor does Norton Antivirus. But something is in my computer which keeps on writing the entry into the registry. Do you have ANY idea what this could be? This is driving me crazy and it's a bit spooky, too. Help!!!!