How to Kill a pop up

I have some form of malware on my old W98SE machine that I can't get rid of.
I don't really want to do a clean disk format/reload if I can avoid it.

The screen comes up with an "About Blank" window that you can click on to
take you to websites. By "right clicking" to get to the page properties I can
see the main address, but a search of my whole hard drive for a file that
contains this text is fruitless. Are there any suggestions on where this pop
up is coming from?

Thanks

In ,
Brad had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I have some form of malware on my old W98SE machine that I can't get
rid of. I don't really want to do a clean disk format/reload if I can
avoid it.

The screen comes up with an "About Blank" window that you can click
on to take you to websites. By "right clicking" to get to the page
properties I can see the main address, but a search of my whole hard
drive for a file that contains this text is fruitless. Are there any
suggestions on where this pop up is coming from?

Thanks

Try a scan...

G³ - Windows All Platforms + General: Malware Cleaning and Repair:
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/general/malwarefix.html

That is pretty general. Poking about for a reputable forum and asking where
to post your HJT logs (I've never used one of the forums so can't really lay
a claim as to which is the best and if you posted it to mine I'd probably be
pretty grouchy but I'd look at it but I'd still be grouchy) might be a good
idea. It may well just be a dorked add-on? My normal snippet is this:

Malware Cleaning:
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/general/malwarefix.html

After that look for poorly coded plug-ins.

BHODemon 2.0:
http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm

One thing to note is that you'll be able to boot to safe mode without
networking, load IE - it will complain about not connecting - and from there
you can probably go ahead and see what plug-ins are enabled or you can just
use the above application...

Finally...

How to reinstall or repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=318378

Ignore the last one - that's not something you really need to accomplish at
this point I don't believe. I'd start with the first two. (Note also that
you can't really boot into safe mode without networking - you can't boot
into safe mode with networking really so it's not an option on 98.)

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"At present I am, as you know, fairly busy, but I propose to devote my
declining years to the composition of a textbook which shall focus the
whole art of detection into one volume." - Sherlock Holmes