Nuisance software

August 15, 2017, 08:58 AM

Elk Hunter

Nuisance software

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

August 15, 2017, 09:11 AM

sreding

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.

August 15, 2017, 09:20 AM

Elk Hunter

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.

August 15, 2017, 09:28 AM

sreding

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)?

August 15, 2017, 09:55 AM

Elk Hunter

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.

August 15, 2017, 10:14 AM

Elk Hunter

Well, that didn't work.

August 15, 2017, 10:28 AM

Leemur

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.

August 15, 2017, 12:22 PM

Elk Hunter

I went further back and did another restore. That seems to have fixed it.

Thanks for the help.

August 15, 2017, 04:26 PM

1967Goat

Are logging into you machine with the admin account? If you are, stop. Create another user (non-admin) and use that one.

August 15, 2017, 10:26 PM

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.

August 16, 2017, 09:25 AM

Elk Hunter

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.

August 27, 2017, 08:22 AM

SIG 229R

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.