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 |
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. |
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. |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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. |
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 |
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 |
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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