Is Yahoo a virus?

Factual Questions
1

I accidentally got the my computer infected with the Yahoo toolbar and now it seems impossible to get rid of.

I was sent a .docx file, which Wordpad or Notepad or any of the other readers I have wouldn’t open, and as I had no desire to buy a whole software package from Microsoft just to read this one file, I downloaded a docx converter from Cnet. Now I know that some of these free software packages come with a ton of garbage attached, and I’m usually careful to watch for this, and just install the basic package.

However, I must have been in too much of a hurry, and let this goddamned Yahoo toolbar slip thru, and it immediately attached itself like a leach to my regular Firefox browser and seems to be permanently in residence.

I tried to get rid of it via the “add or remove programs” procedure in the Control Panel, but it doesn’t show up there. I then tried downloading several toolbar cleaners, but they don’t work either. I even removed and reinstalled Firefox, but the thing is still there. Right now I’m convinced that this Yahoo crap is just as bad as a virus.

Any of you folks have a good solution to getting rid of it?

2

Better: http://techtips.salon.com/rid-yahoo-toolbar-virus-12532.html

3

Go to this URL in Firefox:


about:addons

And see if Yahoo! Toolbar comes up on either the Extensions or Plugins page. If it does there should be buttons to Disable and/or Remove it.

4

Finally - got rid of it! None of the published information seemed to work, at least on my computer. However, a System Restore to March 1st did work, and that Yahoo horror in now gone.

This is the first time I’ve ever used System Restore, and I did it with some trepidation, expecting all sorts of side effects. However, all seems to be OK now. Whew!

5

Just found out an infuriating thing about the Yahoo toolbar. In my first post I mentioned trying toolbar cleaners, and that they didn’t work. Well, what would happen if I tried using them is that they would load, and then crash almost instantly afterwards. Now that the Yahoo abomination is gone, the cleaners now work flawlessly. Evidently Yahoo has a routine that effectivelly disables anything that tries to remove it. What a bunch of bastards.

6

Rather than downloading and installing some docx converter that came with a ton of garbage attached, all you needed to install was the “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats.” It’s only 37MB and doesn’t come with anything attached. (And I’m surprised that you had problems uninstalling the Yahoo! Toolbar. In my experience, it’s right there in Add/Remove Programs.)

7

The Compatibility Pack is for people with older versions of MS Office. If you don’t have Office at all (since you’re talking about Notepad and Wordpad), you can use the free Word viewer from Microsoft.

8

Three things:

  1. I second what Reply has to say. Microsoft makes free Word, Excel, and Powerpoint viewers.
  2. Two free (as-in-beer) packages, Libre Office and Google Docs, are decent at opening .docx files. Libre Office requires a large file download and install. Google Docs requires a Google Account.
  3. If you absolutely have to download something from CNET again, look for the link on their page titled “Direct Download Link.” Should just be in plain text. They may not offer one for all packages; I couldn’t find it for Avast just now. Better solution is to just ditch CNET and not reward them with pageviews for being miscreants.
9

Thanks to all for your advice. I’ve downloaded the Word Viewer from Microsoft and it works fine.

That godawful Yahoo toolbar didn’t show up anywhere - not in the “add and remove” list of the Control Panel, not in the add-on list of Firefox - nowhere. I almost suspect that those Yahoo bastards have made some very recent changes that make it impossible to remove. Thankfully, they haven’t yet gotten around System Restore.

10

Or older versions of Windows. Until a couple of weeks ago, when I finally bought Office 2013, my Windows 7 machine would open .docx files in Office 2003 with few problems.

(Although the gap between “with few problems” and “with no problems at all” is what finally forced me to get the new software).

11

?

Don’t quite follow.

12

I think he’s saying that his Office 2003 would open docx files even though he didn’t install the compatibility pack because he was on Windows 7 instead of an older OS. I guess that could happen if the new Microsoft Update that comes with Windows 7 automatically installed the compatibility pack for him, although that didn’t work on my Windows 7 box.