No bike content ---- I know some of you know your way around the software side of computers. I've got an issue I cannot seem to resolve. When a search is done from this machine the results come back normally however the addresses at the bottom of each link is to some ad bearing address, For example, if I searched bike chains. There would be 10 listings of bike chain vendors ect ect. The address connected to those results would be connected to some page bearing links to other ads.

I cannot search the www inorder to ID the malware. Any insight would be welcomed. Tks --- Lane

That sounds like a trojan in the System that will affect your search results. Don't have this sort of problem but sounds as though you could do with something like Spy Bot to check the system out.

I am afraid that I am well out of touch with Computers nowadays- but Others may come up with a better explanation.

Get a Mac.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Or Ad-aware, which is also is offered as a free version or the pay version.

You may be able to restore it to an earlier date and then run SpyBot and Ad-Aware. It would only take a few minutes to find out. If that doesn't do it, you may have to do a complete restore.Good luck, I'm sure you'll get more replies.

The computer equivalent of a recumbent. The solution to all problems (according to the true believers ).

Is your virus protection software up to date? If not updating your patterns and running a scan might catch it.

A search using what search engine? Google? Multiple search engines?

It sounds like you're the victim of malware. I'd fire up your browser and go to the following URLs to download Sybot & Ad-Aware

Spybot
Ad-Aware

Sounds like you have a hijacker. They can be a piece to get rid of. Best bet is A program like uni blu which is the one I use cost is about 30-40 best I remember, available on line,www.uniblue.com
there are other programs that work and with todays computers you need a good spyware and antivirus.

If more people got Macs, or Ubuntu, or something else, the virus/malware writers would then find it worth their time to target those platforms. No operating system is immune. They're only going after Windows because that's where they see the largest return for their efforts.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem I'm seeing on computers at work lately are root kits. Root kits come to us from the Unix world. There's no easy way to get rid of them. In the past week I've had to clean several in which there were multiple files 'watchdogging' each other, all hidden from the operating system, and they were renamed at each boot-up. Virus-checkers could see the infection but could do nothing about it. To clean them, I had to boot from a CD, then edit the registries and delete files manually. No fun.

Before you do anything hard, check your Add/Remove Programs and remove any toolbars you find. That alone may fix your problem.

I was able to learn I had some sort of hijacker this morning via work computers. I'll tackle it when I get home tonight. This hijacker effects all search engines. Lp

Try both of these. After they are both done scanning and repairing, reboot your PC and run them again. Some viruses or ad trojans can pop back into existence after rebooting. Those can be difficult to get rid of. If you have one, you can google the name of the file or virus to find ways to delete it.

AVG free edition Free virus scanning.
This will find a big list of "tracking cookies". advertising servers use these to keep track of which sites you visit that use their ad services. It's a privacy thing to delete them, but they aren't any danger to you. Any viruses or spy bots will be listed near the bottom of the list, and not be called "cookies"

Spybot search and destroy. Free (or donate) ad hijacker and spy bot cleaner.

These are the two that I use and provided you search the site- You can find free versions that do work.

The hijacker is why I recommened uni blu it does registery repair for "dummies". It can get very hairy for a novice let alone a pro in the registery and easy to do irrepairable damage. However this suite works very well and has saved me a load of time hunting out errors. It has taken out a couple of nasty buggers for me. I also run another anti virus PC-illin, but most of them will still miss some of the hi jackers-- they require special treatment. My son caught me a beaut a couple years back took me 3 days to get it out in the safe mode!! hence the two program and regular scans.

Or try the Kapersky online scanner- it will work when others fail, and it's free, if the thing will let you navigate to it. I usually run Kapersky, then AdAware, then Sbybot whenever the kids latch onto one of these that gets past the on-demand virus protection software.

some of the highjackers create a .dll file on the boot which reside in the windows/system directory that cannot be deleted as they are active in memory when windows is running. If your scan can't delete it it will at least identify the file. Then boot to DOS prompt and delete the offending .dll file manually. Make sure you make a copy of file beforehand & renaming it something like filename.old instead of filename.dll so it won't be activated on the boot.... just in case it's not the right file, or if it has an unforseen impact, you can rename it back.

I got fed up with Windows and switched to Ubuntu. I'm running 8.1 AMD64 and Compiz Fusion. I'm never going back to that flaky windows crap.

Well, you can always run Windows as just another program, using a virtual machine.

Plus, with a Mac you can run Ascent! (https://www.montebellosoftware.com/)

HI,
Not sure why but haven't had many problems with PC Linux on my second hard drive
I even keep a CD copy to boot up on CD if I have a hard drive failure, it runs totally on ram.
Many software and hardware Guru's use linux to trouble shoot winwoes, and PC hardware.
I also have a storng antivirus/ spam blocking package on my XP PC.
(( Eset Nod32 Anti-Virus ))its slams it before it loads.
Doug
I have the latest internet package that provides antispam and trojan protection, auto updates almost daily.Very fast downloads at startup, so you always protected.

https://www.download.com/NOD32-for-Wi...1.html?tag=txt

Thanks folks. The issue is now resolved. I had a trojan, root kit and someother aggravating something or other. They are history and the machine is on cruise control for now ---- Lp

hi,
Many of those cookies are almost as bad as trojans I run adwarese almost weekly and usally find at least 10-20 cookies that are scanning your history activity.
So adware SE is free and works Very well as does spybot.
Your antivirus dosent usally work well for cookies cause you allow your pc to download them and they can have coded spyware that acts like a virus.
Doug
Even oUr freinds at MS instal several rather nosy cookies on your internet E.

Yeah I thought I had decent security software: Ad-Aware,AVG antiviris,Windows Defender,Spybot S&D,Firewall; running all the time or scheduled weekly runs. Guess it was not not good enough. Lp

Care to share what you had & how you got rid of it?
Short version will do.

Follow these instructions if you think your computer is infected. Lp
https://www.geekstogo.com/forum/You-M...Log-t2852.html