help me annihilate this annoying problem

I'm sure many here have seen this. I don't have it happen to me personally, but I have seen it on many other systems and I can't figure out how to get rid of it.

I'm talking about "message center" popups. When a friend of mine gets home from work, even if he has no apps running but is still connected to the internet via cable .. he will have at least 15 advertisement popups on his screen.

I have tried to rid this problem using AdAware and other utilities and it doesn't seem to make a difference. Does anyone know of this issue and have an explanation or a way to rid it from a computer?

TIA

-mg

 

This should do it: http://www.majorgeeks.net/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14925

 

I knew it was a simple tweak like this one.
You rock!

thanks ..

-mg