Word to the wise…
I don’t know how it happened, but a link in this thread wound up filling my computer with adware/spyware/God only knows what. The popups and slow speed are now probably going to kill my computer. It is very elderly, has little available memory left, and is being pampered along for school use. Not the primary home computer, but it was nice to use. Now I’m not sure about it.
I know we are not supposed to post computer advice threads (?), but what do people do about this crazy shit? I’m talking about programs that have installed themselves on the computer, shortcuts which don’t reveal where they are hiding, etc. etc.
At any rate don’t click on any links in that Ninja thread. Either it was a bizarre coincidence, or one of those links is bad news.
Not to worry, help is on the way.
It’s called “spyware” or “malware”, and the following programs will remove it, free of charge, and will not mess up your computer, either.
Download these–Spybot, Adaware, and Spywareblaster. Spybot and Adaware remove the spyware that’s already there; Spywareblaster prevents it from installing itself on your computer in the first place. Trust them. I’ve been using them for months now and have had no problems, and along with me are probably millions of other people.
Spybot.
Adaware.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
Spywareblaster.
Follow the instructions for downloading. Usually you tell it to save it to your computer (I put mine in the “Programs” folder), and then you go to the Programs folder (or whatever) and find it, and find the .exe or setup program, and hit that.
Also, the Google Toolbar has a nifty popup stopper, and it’s free, too. And it won’t mess up your computer.
http://toolbar.google.com/
Download without fear.
One thing: just how “elderly” is your computer? What version of Windows is it running? Some of these, I forget which ones, won’t work with Windows 95.
When this sort of thing happens, the problem is not the Straight Dope itself per se; we’re the unfortunate trigger because we have advertising banners on some of our pages that use DoubleClick.
It’s probably Double Click that triggers what is already resident on your computer.
How did those programs get on your computer in the first place? They piggybacked in on various other programs or from web pages when you were least aware of it. Did you download a shareware/freeware program? Did you accidentally click on one of those ubiquitous popups/popunders while web browsing? Sometimes they can be very very sneaky and lie dormant for quite some time and you don’t notice until the confluence of circumstances when they get triggered.
We do not use popups, popunders, or any other sort of advertising apart from our banner ads, which do not contain this content.
DDG gives excellent advice for removing this content from your machine; I can do no better for you at this point except commiserate with you.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
What’s a “Pop under?”
(It’s been a quiet day so far and I need something else to worry about).
You haven’t seen one? I’m amazed.
Like a popup, but it goes behind your current window. You’ll see one sooner or later. Unfortunately.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Cheers!
The more I use this computer thingy- the less I realise I know.
Wow, John Kerry is going after spyware too? Cool! 