# Gaah! I clicked the wrong button by mistake; now I have some POS adware! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 25, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaah-i-clicked-the-wrong-button-by-mistake-now-i-have-some-pos-adware/215212 "2003-11-25T17:31:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaah-i-clicked-the-wrong-button-by-mistake-now-i-have-some-pos-adware/215212/21 "2003-11-30T20:22:25Z")
Tried Netscape instead of IE and didn’t see any keyword links. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaah-i-clicked-the-wrong-button-by-mistake-now-i-have-some-pos-adware/215212/22 "2003-11-30T20:30:13Z")
If you read my linked posts, you will find a reference to [Symantec](http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.bootconf.html), which describes the Trojan Horse I mentioned, lists symptoms and registry entries which should clearly identify it. Have you looked at that? The link also describes how you could manually get rid of it. CWShredder apparently does these actions automatically, but if you do it manually you don’t have to trust a strange program. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaah-i-clicked-the-wrong-button-by-mistake-now-i-have-some-pos-adware/215212/23 "2003-11-30T21:06:11Z")
**Tusculan** , I don’t think any of that applies to me. My start page stays where it’s supposed to be. After updating AdAware, it did find some POS called [Newton Knows](http://www.sharewareorder.com/Newton-Knows-download-20258.htm) and removed it. Still having those link problems though. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaah-i-clicked-the-wrong-button-by-mistake-now-i-have-some-pos-adware/215212/24 "2003-11-30T21:13:57Z")
Sorry to hear that you’re still not completely rid of the stuff. Still, the keyword thing does sound like there could be something wrong with your default IE style sheet. Have you tried looking in it to see whether those keyword links were programmed in there? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaah-i-clicked-the-wrong-button-by-mistake-now-i-have-some-pos-adware/215212/25 "2003-11-30T21:30:16Z")
Never had those links before this mess started. Seems to be the work of some morons who call themselves [Intelligent Explorer](http://www.ieplugin.com/support.html). I believe I have everything taken care of, now if I could just get rid of the damn links! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaah-i-clicked-the-wrong-button-by-mistake-now-i-have-some-pos-adware/215212/26 "2003-11-30T21:32:50Z")
Aha! The links belong to [a different set of morons](http://www.vibrantmedia.com/)! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaah-i-clicked-the-wrong-button-by-mistake-now-i-have-some-pos-adware/215212/27 "2003-12-02T15:50:36Z")
And it looks like I can’t do a thing about them. They’re showing up at work to so it must be on the other end. I wonder if the operator of that site (the underdogs) knows about it. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaah-i-clicked-the-wrong-button-by-mistake-now-i-have-some-pos-adware/215212/28 "2003-12-02T16:59:39Z")
Have you reached the point of re-installing IE from scratch? Can you use System Restore to travel backwards in time to a safer place? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaah-i-clicked-the-wrong-button-by-mistake-now-i-have-some-pos-adware/215212/29 "2003-12-02T18:32:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tapioca Dextrin \* > **Have you reached the point of re-installing IE from scratch?** Yeah, and it didn’t do much good. > [@](#): > > \*\*Can you use System Restore to travel backwards in time to a safer place? \*\* Don’t know and I’m not really worried about it anymore. Seems the only thing I can’t get rid of (those links, which only appear at the one site) isn’t on my end. I figured out the Intelligent Explorer people were the culpirts because I got another box asking if I wanted to install the IE Plugin(!); the description of which matched what I had removed. Once again, I’d like to thank everyone who offered their help. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaah-i-clicked-the-wrong-button-by-mistake-now-i-have-some-pos-adware/215212.md?page=1)