guys -

my kids seem to have gotten something on one of their gaming sites (which are off-limits as of now).

DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK ON THIS POST!!!!!

open any web page, get a yellow bar across the top that says:

The page you are opening is probably contains spyware, adware, etc.. Your system might be at risk, Click here to protect your system with Antivirus 360.

after that, 9 times out of 10, it will go to a page that is cleverly designed to look like a microsoft security alert page, but actually locks up the screen looking like this:

Internet Explorer Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!     Most likely causes: The website contains exploits that can launch a malicious code on your computer Suspicious network activity detected There might be an active spyware running on your computer   What you can try:   Activate Antivirus 360 for secure Internet surfing (Recommended).   Check your computer for viruses and malware.   More information

any clicking goes to this link:

http://microsoft.securityinfohelp.com/360/order_xp.php?id=77 043301

this is obviously some very aggressive advertising by this a360, whatever that is. i've cleared cookies, temp files, cache, reset internet settings to default, run spy sweeper, run ad-aware, all to no avail.

any ideas?

i think i got it all, including items mentioned above - thanks, jay!

also, rusty (texasshooter) provided solution here:

http://www.spywareremove.com/removeAntivirus360.html

this goes to a free download called spyhunter to detect the problem. from there you can either buy the program to fix it or just manually do it. it looks like i was able to manually take care of the problem!

thanks, tex!