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Good morning BFTers! I have a question about Internet Explorer and some generic unwanted toolbars that appear when I get online. The toolbars (one below explorer toolbar and one at the bottom of the page) seem to be more like link bars. They have tabs like " casino" "games" Mortgages" "finance" etc. etc.. I have run ad-aware, spybot and startup mechanic. These spyware programs remove tracking programs and the like, they don't detect these crazy toolbars. I have even had new shortcuts appear on my desktop, shortcuts I would never dream of putting on my computer let alone my desktop. Any suggestion on how to get rid of this annoying problem?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions..
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Hey bearclaw who is your internet provider? If it's something like netzero or other free ones they add banners all over the place. You may be able to contact them with help as well.
I know awhile back I was getting adds popping up when I logged into my work computer, then I ran Lavasoft's adaware and clean off a ton of spyware cookies and such and haven't had a problem since. There was nothing offensive, just annoying ads. Good luck!!!
An important FYI: Some add-removal software actually INSTALL some spyware on your computer while removing all others, leading you to believe that you are clean. Be careful what you install to you machine and where you get it.
Lavasoft ad-aware is reputable and probably safe. That's what I use.
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No problem glad to help out. I have just the free version and it works great. The one benefit of paying for the full version is that you can set real-time protection that will keep those spyware cookies and programs from returning. With the free version, I run it every 2 or 3 days to clean off all the spyware. Usually it cleans off 20 to 30 objects every time it scans.
Here's another thing...do you have realtime antivirus protection? If not, I would recommend AVG antivirus. It's free and that's what I use at home and it works great. It has realtime protection. If you need a link to find it let me know and I can find it for you.
Also, make sure both your virus definitions are up to date as well as your Adaware definitions.
You might try an advanced scan with adaware. I scan just files every couple days. Then every week or so I scan EVERYTHING including all the registry. It will usually find a couple more in the registry.
For programs that run at startup, look in the following folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
or C:\Documents and Settings\<enter your username here>\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Another good place to look is in the registry under the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
and in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Those are the locations that a spyware would put a link to start it up every time you start your computer. You can look at the registry by clicking on the Start button, then run. Then type in regedit.
Check those 2 locations for entries that you don't recognize as valid programs. DONT DELETE THEM UNLESS YOU ARE SURE THEY SHOULD NOT BE THERE! If you need help identifying them or finding the registry let me know.
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i use the adaware 6.0 and spybot, and i had the unwanted tool bars untill i updated my spybot. it wiped them all out. just click on the online button on the left collum and download the latest stuff for the us. if you have dsl it shouldnt take that long to download the updates, hope this helps
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in internet options, click on the advanced tab, un-click where it says" enable third-party browser extensions" and reboot . .
you might get lucky . . [
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sm
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Hey good deal Bearclaw glad we could help out. Here's to a virus and spyware free computer.
On a side note, my PC at home (running the disgusting Windows ME Operating System) is having problems lately where it will lock up and if your try to push CTR - ALT - DEL so you can end the task, it goes to a pure blue screen (NOT the blue screen of death) that says the system is busy. End up having to reboot. What a pain, who knows what's wrong, other than Windows ME sucks.
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Cat man, i know your gripe about win me, sounds like it is time to switch to the win xp pro era, very nice, or you could even get a free linux os such as red hat, then you wont be padding bill gates pockets any more. i feel your pain though being a college student doesnt leave much play money
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