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HELP!!!! (MSIE crappin' out!!)

I'm having a problem with my Internet Explorer. It's been going for a while now, but it seems to just get worse and worse.

First of all, I start surfing a lil' bit, and after a while, 5,000 pop-ups start popping up all over the screen, just out of the blue. (Okay not THAT much, but a LOT). For every ONE window I close, 20 more pop-up to take it's place. They're freakin' poppin' up faster than I can close 'em. So then I hold down ALT+F4 and close every single IE window. Then it gives me some stupid "Abnormal termination" BS. It says something about "this program referanced memory at...." bla bla bla. Whatever. That doesn't really affect it or anything, I can just close that window, and open up IE again.

Anyway... the second thing, is that I have to reset my default home page AT LEAST once a day. Something (no idea what) keeps changing it all the time, to some gay-arse search-engine.

Third (and this just happened last night), it made everything all centered now. How do I fix this? It's the most annoying part of it all. I have 2 forums which I frequent (this, and one other one) and I'm used to all the posts and everything being on (or starting on) the left side. For some reason, tho, my IE decided to put everything in the center..... and I can't find the option to undo it, or make all text go on the left, or whatever. WTF?!?!?!?!?

Is there some kind of keyboard-shortcut or something that I might have inadvertadly pressed to change the alignment?

I am running Win XP Pro with SP1, and IE version: 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp1.020828-1920.

I think it might be infected with some kind of a bug... or something. Funny thing is, IE is the only thing I seem to be having a problem with. Everything ELSE is working just fine.

If any of you computer-whiz/geniuses, etc... out there have an suggestions, I sure would be greatful.

Thanx for the help, (in advance)

-Zoltan

Comments

  • PhiPhi <font color=#FF0000>C</font><font color=#FF9900>o</font><font color=#FFFF00>l</font><font color=#00F
    Try downloading [URL=http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/]AdAware[/URL] and running it to get rid of whatever is causing the popups. Running a virus scan can't hurt either. :)

    As for IE not working, try [URL=http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp]Netscape[/URL], [URL=http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird/]Mozilla Firebird[/URL], or [URL=http://www.opera.com/]Opera[/URL]. You'll get lots of opinions here as to which is best... ;)

    Φ
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    Sounds to me like your computer is loaded with spyware.

    I'm with Phi on this. Install and run adaware, then change to a decent browser where you can actually control your security settings properly. I recommend Firebird. It's light and fast.
  • C_MonC_Mon A Genuine Sucker
    I'm with Phi too. And a good thing with Opera (I think Mozilla got this too, but I've never used it so I can't say) is that it opens every page inside the Opera program so if there are many pop-ups you can just close the program and all the pop-ups will also go. Although you can block all pop-ups with these browsers.
  • actually...sounds kinda like a nasty pop up that summons two of iteslf on close. (Seen it before, only it summoned 5 of itself for each closed...very annoying and easy to do).

    as for the rest, I'm in agreement with the others.
  • Data CrystalData Crystal Pencil Artist
    I'm with the others, but would just like to add that if you have that bad an infection on your comp' as it sounds from that description, running Ad-Aware is the definitely the way to go, but I'd suggest running [URL=http://spybot.eon.net.au/]SpyBot, Search & Destroy[/URL] even after that.

    Just to make sure, as SpybotSD can find stuff that Ad-Aware seems to sometimes miss.

    And with consecutive popups, some firewalls allow to "lock down" the internet. Keep the lock button in the background, and when you see the first secondary popup, lockdown, close the popups and continue as you used to. I think I should try Opera too...
  • Try a virusscan too just to be safe. I had some vbscript virus once that changed my homepage every time i restarted.
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    There's also [url=housecall.trendmicro.com]TrendMicro's Housecall, free online virus scanner[/url]

    I was going to suggest Spybot and Adaware, but it seems the rest got to you first :)
  • My brother had the same problem a little while back. Ad-aware found almost a hundred spy/malware objects... scary. Me I run the scan every couple of days and I turn up about a half-dozen nasties.

    As for spybot, this is just my experience but I didn't care much for it. Sure it had some cool features, but it ended up screwing up IE.
  • Rogue TraderRogue Trader Somebody stop him...
    also i suggest getting the google toolbar version 2.0, it has a pop up blocker built inside of it. it does a darn good job at blocking in my oppinion.
  • Vertigo1Vertigo1 Official Fuzzy Dice of FirstOnes.com
    Looks like someone got bit by Gator. Nasty little bugger isn't it? Sick Ad-Aware on that bitch [b]AFTER[/b] you kill the crap running in the background. Otherwise you'll frell up your Windows install. Trust me, I know this from personal experience.

    Just hit CTRL ALT DEL and kill the process. Then run AdAware and nuke it.
  • shadow boxershadow boxer The Finger Painter & Master Ranter
    the key here is a very simple rule of thumb that works time and time again.

    Just think about it for a second.

    If you are a nefarious virus/spyware/bot/evil program writer, who do you target ?

    Mac users running Opera ?

    Hardly... Mac has how much market share ? 5% ? and then you pick Opera, which perhaps means youre targeting 10% of 5%...

    ...which means you're wasting your time.

    ~~~~

    If you want half a chance of surviving against the digital scum, then you avoid the mainstream. The scum target the most common and widest 'market' they can. They know that they stand the best chance of getting thier shit out there and thriving by targeting the most common OS, the most common apps, the most common browsers.

    So do your homework, find the best running, most obscure versions of whatever you need and then you may just keep your machine relatively free of crap. There are a million and one alternatives to M$ft and the more common apps. Use them, be safe, and promote 'genetic diversty' in the digital realm.

    If we dont, we run the same sorts of risks that we do in the biological world. Right now we have only 60 or so major crop cultivars
    (plant species). They provide us with the bulk of our food. All it would take is one Uber virus to cause massive starvation.

    Thats why there are a bunch of arbouretums and plant 'archives' which keep thousands of obscure cultivars which may be resistant to such an Uber virus... and we may not starve to death because some dedicated scientists and plant lovers kept the 'poor yielding', wild and weird versions of food plants alive.

    ~~~~

    The ame sort of principile applies in the digital world. WE MUST DIVERSIFY. We must have enough variations, enough differing 'species' of computer hardware and software, lest we end up with a plague which may undo the world....
  • Rogue TraderRogue Trader Somebody stop him...
    ya thanks for scaring the shit out of me.
  • [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by shadow boxer [/i]
    [B]the key here is a very simple rule of thumb that works time and time again.

    Just think about it for a second.

    If you are a nefarious virus/spyware/bot/evil program writer, who do you target ?

    Mac users running Opera ?

    Hardly... Mac has how much market share ? 5% ? and then you pick Opera, which perhaps means youre targeting 10% of 5%...

    ...which means you're wasting your time.

    ~~~~

    If you want half a chance of surviving against the digital scum, then you avoid the mainstream. The scum target the most common and widest 'market' they can. They know that they stand the best chance of getting thier shit out there and thriving by targeting the most common OS, the most common apps, the most common browsers.

    So do your homework, find the best running, most obscure versions of whatever you need and then you may just keep your machine relatively free of crap. There are a million and one alternatives to M$ft and the more common apps. Use them, be safe, and promote 'genetic diversty' in the digital realm.

    If we dont, we run the same sorts of risks that we do in the biological world. Right now we have only 60 or so major crop cultivars
    (plant species). They provide us with the bulk of our food. All it would take is one Uber virus to cause massive starvation.

    Thats why there are a bunch of arbouretums and plant 'archives' which keep thousands of obscure cultivars which may be resistant to such an Uber virus... and we may not starve to death because some dedicated scientists and plant lovers kept the 'poor yielding', wild and weird versions of food plants alive.

    ~~~~

    The ame sort of principile applies in the digital world. WE MUST DIVERSIFY. We must have enough variations, enough differing 'species' of computer hardware and software, lest we end up with a plague which may undo the world.... [/B][/QUOTE]

    Ummm.... yeah.

    "And he thrusts his fist against the post,
    and still insists, he sees the ghost."

    -Zoltan
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by shadow boxer [/i]
    [B][/B][/QUOTE]

    Or, you just use an OS or Account in which limited permissions are present such that it's impossible to modify system files on such a level. i.e. Limited user, WinNT/2k/XP, Mac OS X (--9 doesn't count because the automated installers used in modern spyware could not function), Linux (Because it's so heavily based on permissions and is secure because it's closed by default), etc.
  • Vertigo1Vertigo1 Official Fuzzy Dice of FirstOnes.com
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Sanfam [/i]
    [B]Or, you just use an OS or Account in which limited permissions are present such that it's impossible to modify system files on such a level. i.e. Limited user, WinNT/2k/XP, Mac OS X (--9 doesn't count because the automated installers used in modern spyware could not function), Linux (Because it's so heavily based on permissions and is secure because it's closed by default), etc. [/B][/QUOTE]

    Or flat out deny write access to the Windows dir, which prevents the installation of the necessary DLLs.
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