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Too old to run,
too mean to quit!
posted
My computer has been invaded by some really bothersome software!

It inserts ads/commercials. I cannot figure out how to get rid of it. Only data I have been able to come up with ins "online.com".

It seems to search for specific terms and then presents a bunch of crap/ads.

Any suggestions about some free software to stop this?

Thanks for any help


Elk

There has never been an occasion where a people gave up their weapons in the interest of peace that didn't end in their massacre. (Louis L'Amour)

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. "
-Thomas Jefferson

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis de Tocqueville

FBHO!!!



The Idaho Elk Hunter
 
Posts: 25642 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 16, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Sounds like a browser hijack - this link explains them and some basics on how to remove. Identifying the offending app/plugin is often the hard part. Usually when cleaning peoples stuff up I just start going through their installed programs (control panel) and asking them what each one is. If they don't know I look it up and then ask if they do 'whatever' it does. If they have no clue - it gets trashed.

You can also look at install dates in the Add/Remove programs portion of windows and try to find ones that were installed around the same time.




I reject your reality and substitute my own.
--Adam Savage, MythBusters
 
Posts: 1748 | Location: Red Wing, MN | Registered: January 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Too old to run,
too mean to quit!
posted Hide Post
Inspected my "installed software" to see if any thing had been installed recently. None found.

I have Spybot running right now, maybe that will find something.

Thanx for the suggestion.


Elk

There has never been an occasion where a people gave up their weapons in the interest of peace that didn't end in their massacre. (Louis L'Amour)

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. "
-Thomas Jefferson

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis de Tocqueville

FBHO!!!



The Idaho Elk Hunter
 
Posts: 25642 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 16, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Have you checked your browser settings for home page, search engine, and plugins? Also what do the properties for your Firefox link/shortcut show (target and 'starts in' on the shortcut tab)?




I reject your reality and substitute my own.
--Adam Savage, MythBusters
 
Posts: 1748 | Location: Red Wing, MN | Registered: January 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Too old to run,
too mean to quit!
posted Hide Post
Found nothing that would indicate this crap application.

I am seriously considering doing a restore operation. My system does an auto back up every sunday night. This crap just popped up, so it was apparently not on the system on Sunday.

Thanks for suggestions.


Elk

There has never been an occasion where a people gave up their weapons in the interest of peace that didn't end in their massacre. (Louis L'Amour)

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. "
-Thomas Jefferson

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis de Tocqueville

FBHO!!!



The Idaho Elk Hunter
 
Posts: 25642 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 16, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Too old to run,
too mean to quit!
posted Hide Post
Well, that didn't work.


Elk

There has never been an occasion where a people gave up their weapons in the interest of peace that didn't end in their massacre. (Louis L'Amour)

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. "
-Thomas Jefferson

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis de Tocqueville

FBHO!!!



The Idaho Elk Hunter
 
Posts: 25642 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 16, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Leemur
posted Hide Post
Not sure if it's still any good but for one time scans I used to use a tool called Stinger. There's also an online scan (or there was) called housecall. Might be worth looking for them.
 
Posts: 13740 | Location: Shenandoah Valley, VA | Registered: October 16, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Too old to run,
too mean to quit!
posted Hide Post
I went further back and did another restore. That seems to have fixed it.

Thanks for the help.


Elk

There has never been an occasion where a people gave up their weapons in the interest of peace that didn't end in their massacre. (Louis L'Amour)

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. "
-Thomas Jefferson

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis de Tocqueville

FBHO!!!



The Idaho Elk Hunter
 
Posts: 25642 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 16, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Shit don't
mean shit
posted Hide Post
Are logging into you machine with the admin account? If you are, stop. Create another user (non-admin) and use that one.
 
Posts: 5759 | Location: 7400 feet in Conifer CO | Registered: November 14, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Essayons
Picture of SapperSteel
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Elk, I had something similar happen to me a couple years back -- every time I used Google it returned not the usual Google list of links but instead a list of commercial ads/outlets pertinent to the general theme of what I was Googling.

On the advice of someone here on this forum I tried "SpyHunter", which is an anti-virus and anti-malware program. It worked. I still use it daily to clean up the nasty stuff left on my computer from my daily internet surfing.

It isn't free to install, will cost you around $40, but you get to try it for free (or at least you did when I first tried it) and see if it finds your problem before you pay for it.

It has worked for me, so I recommend it to you.


Thanks,

Sap
 
Posts: 3452 | Location: Arimo, Idaho | Registered: February 03, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Too old to run,
too mean to quit!
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by SapperSteel:
Elk, I had something similar happen to me a couple years back -- every time I used Google it returned not the usual Google list of links but instead a list of commercial ads/outlets pertinent to the general theme of what I was Googling.

On the advice of someone here on this forum I tried "SpyHunter", which is an anti-virus and anti-malware program. It worked. I still use it daily to clean up the nasty stuff left on my computer from my daily internet surfing.

It isn't free to install, will cost you around $40, but you get to try it for free (or at least you did when I first tried it) and see if it finds your problem before you pay for it.

It has worked for me, so I recommend it to you.


Appreciate the info!!

Will keep it in mind so it that shit comes back I will have a faster/better way to get rid of it.

And, in my case it seemed to have infected Firefox.

Did an uninstall/reinstall and system is clean.

Seems like re-installing Firefox fixed it.


Elk

There has never been an occasion where a people gave up their weapons in the interest of peace that didn't end in their massacre. (Louis L'Amour)

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. "
-Thomas Jefferson

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis de Tocqueville

FBHO!!!



The Idaho Elk Hunter
 
Posts: 25642 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 16, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of SIG 229R
posted Hide Post
I have recently had a problem with Google toolbar for IE. My IE pages were going nuts and especially if I opened a new tab they would freeze up and give you a message to restore page. I uninstalled toolbar yesterday and it seems to have solved the problem and at the same time speeded up IE page loading a little bit.

I had some sort of ad-ware install a year or so ago and had a terrible time uninstalling it I finally had to download special software to get rid of it. I do not remember what it was but, someone here can probably tell you since it was here I found out about it. Good luck on getting rid of it. I hate ad-ware.


SigP229R
Harry Callahan "A man has got to know his limitations".
Teddy Roosevelt "Talk soft carry a big stick"
I Cor10: 13 "1611KJV"
 
Posts: 6066 | Registered: March 04, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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