Everytime I start up my computer, it says, "Error! Could not download application! Please try again!" I tried deleting all my cookies and using AdAware to get rid of spyware, but it still comes up. I did try looking for this on the Microsoft site and other places, but no one seems to really know how to fix it. Anyone else ever come across it? I don't use Kazaa or other song downloading programs. So it has to be something else, but what, I have no clue.

my dad's comp got an error like that when it came down with a case of klez. maybe you should try scanning your system for viruses. klez did this neat trick where it would shut down my virus software. you can use mcafee's free online scanner to check your computer remotedly, if you want. the page for that is here.

another possibility is that one of the programs on your computer is set to automatically connect to some website for an update or something. does the window say what program is giving the error?

Paul

I have Norton AV both on my system and my Yahoo web-based mail account, and I never download anything that looks suspicious. So it can't be a virus. I will, however, try scanning anyway.

It doesn't give the name of any specific program either.

I'm guessing it's spyware that Ad Aware didn't detect. Is there any way to check this?

Emily, have you tried Spychecker ?

I use this program frequently after surfing the net and it picks up most everything that's been tacked on to my system.

LabRat

Thanks, guys. I ran a virus scan but it didn't find anything. I let the full system scan run for about 3 hours.

Finally solved this. I ran Spybot the first time and it locked up, then I downloaded an update and ran it again. It worked the second time. When I rebooted, the pop-up didn't come up again. So it was definitely adware or spyware.