Pop Up

Q: For the past month I have been getting 2 regular pop ups that look official (I have Norton AV which is supposed to screen out pop-ups). One of the messages looks similar to what I am sending below:
Messenger Service
CRITICAL ERROR MESSAGE!
Registry damaged or corrupted

To FIX this problem:
Open Internet Explorer and type www.registrycleanerxp.com
Once you load the web page, close this message window
After you install the cleaner program you will not receive any more reminders or pop ups like this.
Visit www.registrycleanerxp.com IMMEDIATELY

So I went to the site and found a product I could purchase to clean my registry. I am a bit skeptical of this message. I get a similar one referring me to www.saferegclean.com.
Is this just a ploy to get me to purchase a product or is there really an error with my registry? And while we are at it, what the heck is a registry? (I am technologically challenged.)
If this is just a ploy, how do I get it to stop?

Pam F.
A: Your instincts are correct. What you are experiencing is a marketing ploy to encourage you to purchase their product. Their advertisement is intentionally made to strongly resemble a message that would come from your system, and scare you into buying their product. There are generally two types of pop-up messages. The first are the ones that actually originate from your system or a third party software that is installed on your computer. These messages are used to provide system information, errors, and warnings. The second type of pop-ups are advertisements, of which there are several subcategories.
What you have described sounds like an adware/spyware advertisement has found its way onto your computer. No need to be overly alarmed though. They have become quite common and annoying on today’s Internet. Removing them are pretty much pain free. You need an adware/spyware removal software program. There are several to choose from that meet most price ranges. Two of the industry leaders are Spybot Search and Destroy which is free, and Spyware Doctor. You can download Spybot from download.com or any other freeware website. Even if you have an anti-virus program on your computer, you may still need an adware removal program because not all anti-virus programs can detect and remove adwares/spyware programs.
Once you have the program installed, all that needs to be done is to perform a scan on your system and remove whatever is found. Being able to distinguish adwares/spyware advertising from real system messages can save you a bit of grief. A dead giveaway is a prompt to go to a website and purchase a product. Messages that originate from your system and third party programs are prefabricated and prompted to pop-up when a conflict has occurred or there is a potential problem. Nine times out of ten, pop-ups with links directing you to purchase a solution to a previously unknown problem are adware/spyware.