Nasty Popups

So my new abode came with a free desktop computer which seems to be chock a block with nasty annoying popup windows.I have downloaded various free antivirus programs (Avg,panda) and nothing seems to help.I have installed adblock plus and Strict popup blocker and all to no avail.ANy bright ideas?

Wipe it and install a fresh OS.

Sorry stil I am not a techie and I don't know how to do that.I don't have any Windows installation or anything.Is there another way?

https://www.malwarebytes.org/

But, another person, not me, some fellow with a looser affiliation to institutional ownership might, say, ask a neighbour with a clean computer to torrent a windows 7 and set it up on a bootable usb stick.

Alternatively, perhaps today is the first day of the rest of your Linux.

Sorry stil I am not a techie and I don't know how to do that.I don't have any Windows installation or anything.Is there another way?

Find a Windows install disc from somewhere, put it in the CD drive, and let it do it's thing. It's basically all automatic.

Hopefully, you can find the tech support guy from the university/school you are working for.  He should have the disc and be able to fix your computer.