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-   -   Bing and Yahoo intrusive ads (http://www.pcbanter.net/showthread.php?t=1102497)

Tim Slattery[_2_] December 11th 17 05:46 PM

Bing and Yahoo intrusive ads
 
My wife uses Windows 8.1. She says she is constantly getting pop-ups
telling her to update Bing or Yahoo and make it her default search
engine. She says these pop-ups are impossible to shut down. She would
very much like to stop them from appearing, and I'm at a loss what to
tell her.

--
Tim Slattery
tim at risingdove dot com

Mayayana December 12th 17 01:13 AM

Bing and Yahoo intrusive ads
 
"Tim Slattery" wrote

| My wife uses Windows 8.1. She says she is constantly getting pop-ups
| telling her to update Bing or Yahoo and make it her default search
| engine. She says these pop-ups are impossible to shut down. She would
| very much like to stop them from appearing, and I'm at a loss what to
| tell her.
|

It's hard for anyone to offer help without more
info. On Windows or in a browser? What browser?
When online or not? At specific webpages? What's
the popup look like? (Can you take a screenshot?)

To stop them you have to know where they're
coming from.



Good Guy[_2_] December 12th 17 01:18 AM

Bing and Yahoo intrusive ads
 
On 11/12/2017 16:46, Tim Slattery wrote:
My wife uses Windows 8.1. She says she is constantly getting pop-ups
telling her to update Bing or Yahoo and make it her default search
engine. She says these pop-ups are impossible to shut down. She would
very much like to stop them from appearing, and I'm at a loss what to
tell her.

Tell her there is no such thing as "update bing or yahoo". Bing and
yahoo are search engines and you need to launch a browser to search for
something.

In the case of Bing, Microsoft has an APP in Windows 8.1 and 10 to
search the machine but the update is normally automatic if any. I
haven't seen any updates but as you may know, I don't sit in-front of a
machine watching updates entering my machine. They come when they come
but I don't get sleepless nights about them.

Finally, if you can't convince her then tell her to use Linux to satisfy
her.

--
With over 600 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.


Paul[_32_] December 12th 17 03:55 AM

Bing and Yahoo intrusive ads
 
Tim Slattery wrote:
My wife uses Windows 8.1. She says she is constantly getting pop-ups
telling her to update Bing or Yahoo and make it her default search
engine. She says these pop-ups are impossible to shut down. She would
very much like to stop them from appearing, and I'm at a loss what to
tell her.


It could be similar to this report.

https://productforums.google.com/for...A/VzKCIgwQDQAJ

If you have a picture of the popup, you can Google some
of the text and check for a match. Windows 8 has SnippingTool,
which can take a snapshot of the whole desktop, and that
would be sufficient for the job of gathering evidence.
The output is stored as a PNG image file by default.

Paul

Tim Slattery[_2_] December 12th 17 03:42 PM

Bing and Yahoo intrusive ads
 
"Mayayana" wrote:

"Tim Slattery" wrote

| My wife uses Windows 8.1. She says she is constantly getting pop-ups
| telling her to update Bing or Yahoo and make it her default search
| engine. She says these pop-ups are impossible to shut down. She would
| very much like to stop them from appearing, and I'm at a loss what to
| tell her.
|

It's hard for anyone to offer help without more
info.


Very reasonable. I should have supplied more data.

On Windows or in a browser? What browser?

In Firefox.

When online or not? At specific webpages?


We have a broadband connection, so she's always online. Apparently
it's not on specific webpages.

What's
the popup look like? (Can you take a screenshot?)'


I'll try to do that.

To stop them you have to know where they're
coming from.


That would help, but I don't think they want us to know...

--
Tim Slattery
tim at risingdove dot com

Tim Slattery[_2_] December 12th 17 03:43 PM

Bing and Yahoo intrusive ads
 
Good Guy wrote:

On 11/12/2017 16:46, Tim Slattery wrote:
My wife uses Windows 8.1. She says she is constantly getting pop-ups
telling her to update Bing or Yahoo and make it her default search
engine. She says these pop-ups are impossible to shut down. She would
very much like to stop them from appearing, and I'm at a loss what to
tell her.

Tell her there is no such thing as "update bing or yahoo". Bing and
yahoo are search engines and you need to launch a browser to search for
something.


I agree, these things are definitely not kosher.

--
Tim Slattery
tim at risingdove dot com

Mayayana December 12th 17 04:01 PM

Bing and Yahoo intrusive ads
 
"Tim Slattery" wrote

| On Windows or in a browser? What browser?
|
| In Firefox.
|

You might check Tools - Add-ons, then look
at extensions and plugins to see if there's anything
you don't recognize. The add-ons are like small
programs that can be added to customize FF.
There's also an option in Tools - Options -
Security to "Warn me when sites try to install
add-ons". (Why is that even possible?! Beats me.)

For further protection, you can go to about:config
and set the value xpinstall.enabled to false in order
to block extensions being installed.

Also, in Tools - Options - Content you might
want to check the box to block popups.

An additional thing would be to check the toolbar
and menu for any kind of non-FF buttons or menu
items. That could indicate some kind of add-on
that's activated.

Commercial malware doesn't always hide. Often
they just pretend that you agreed to install it
(perhaps hidden in something like a software installer)
and then depend on the fact that most people
won't realize the malware is there.

| When online or not? At specific webpages?
|
| We have a broadband connection, so she's always online. Apparently
| it's not on specific webpages.
|
I meant whether it happens at websites, when
the browser is started, when no pages are open, etc.
My thought was to narrow down possibilities: Installed
software, browser add-ons, webpage code, etc. If
it's webpage code then only restricting javascript will
help, but if it's something like corporate malware it
can be hunted down.

Also note, "Good Guy" occasionally says something
relevant, but mostly he just posts meanspirited insults.
I filter his posts. I expect most people here do. So
take his advice with a grain of salt.



SC Tom[_3_] December 13th 17 01:28 PM

Bing and Yahoo intrusive ads
 


"Tim Slattery" wrote in message
...
My wife uses Windows 8.1. She says she is constantly getting pop-ups
telling her to update Bing or Yahoo and make it her default search
engine. She says these pop-ups are impossible to shut down. She would
very much like to stop them from appearing, and I'm at a loss what to
tell her.


One thing you can do is install an add-on to Firefox to help block the ads
and other "goodies." I like u-Block Origin:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock#ublock-origin

It's simple, takes little in the way of resources, and seems to do a good
job. You can install it through "add-ons" in the Firefox menu (or just press
CTRL+SHFT+A), and click on "Get Add-ons."
--

SC Tom



Tim Slattery[_2_] December 14th 17 06:23 PM

Bing and Yahoo intrusive ads
 
Tim Slattery wrote:

My wife uses Windows 8.1. She says she is constantly getting pop-ups
telling her to update Bing or Yahoo and make it her default search
engine. She says these pop-ups are impossible to shut down. She would
very much like to stop them from appearing, and I'm at a loss what to
tell her.


Oh well, it's all moot now. A couple of days ago, when it booted up,
the machine got stuck and decided it had to "refresh" itself. This
consisted of uninstalling *all* software that had been installed on it
since its first start-up, and returning to the default software. So we
are trying to find discs, download sites, etc.

I've never heard of that "refresh" process before, certainly never
seen it appear. I haven't a clue of what caused it.

Since we've got a pristine copy of Firefox, the pop-ups that were
giving her grief aren't there anymore.

--
Tim Slattery
tim at risingdove dot com

Shadow December 16th 17 02:02 AM

Bing and Yahoo intrusive ads
 
On Thu, 14 Dec 2017 12:23:22 -0500, Tim Slattery
wrote:

Tim Slattery wrote:

My wife uses Windows 8.1. She says she is constantly getting pop-ups
telling her to update Bing or Yahoo and make it her default search
engine. She says these pop-ups are impossible to shut down. She would
very much like to stop them from appearing, and I'm at a loss what to
tell her.


Oh well, it's all moot now. A couple of days ago, when it booted up,
the machine got stuck and decided it had to "refresh" itself. This
consisted of uninstalling *all* software that had been installed on it
since its first start-up, and returning to the default software. So we
are trying to find discs, download sites, etc.

I've never heard of that "refresh" process before, certainly never
seen it appear. I haven't a clue of what caused it.

Since we've got a pristine copy of Firefox, the pop-ups that were
giving her grief aren't there anymore.


There will be.

Options --- Advanced --- Update Search Engines.
Is it disabled ? I believe "enabled" is the default.
(I'm using an old version, you might have to use
about:config)
[]'s
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012


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