IE 6 still "haunted"

[Bubba]

I am still fighting my IE 6. on WinXP PRo.

I have Spyhunter, Spybot, Adware, Norton,  And I still have a lot of mysterious web pages. Right now, in the taskbar, it says 5 Internet Explorer, one is this page, but the others are not accessable, three say this:

~close~ Microsoft Internet Explorer

one says: New Offer for you ! Microsoft Internet Explorer

The two examples above, will not "open" they are displayed in the taskbar, but nowhere on the screen, I can right click the  5 Internet Explorer tab in the taskbar, the 5 are listed, and then left click close, one at a time and they go away, but soon other ones return, sometimes, I have to ctrl alt del to kill then in the task manager, because the "close" is not highlighted.


Driving me nuts !!!

[slaxorz]

Try running an online virus scan such as the one featured on this site.  Or check out avg antivirus i loved it on my laptop.  Never got a virus with that i recently swiped my drive due to a virus that norton didnt catch.

[johnamazing]

B,
Consider formatting HD and starting over.
Sounds like your system is "overloaded" and has become permanently confused and/or corrupted.
If you have not formatted in a year, it might be a good option to perform the clean-out.

It is always astounding to restore a computer into new condition after a format.
Those software problems that drives a person nutso are gone!
I format at least once a year and usually more often.
A

[Neon]

You still have adware on your system, but you say that you have both Ad-aware and Spybot-S&D. Are you updating the definitions on your antivirus and antispyware apps? Is Windows up to date?

[Bubba]

I did the scan with the Poasters' recommended de-bugger, it found 8 things that Norton didn't,,,, what's up with that ? Why do I PAY for Norton, when free ones do more ???????????????


Format,,, oh yeah, I am at least a once a year formatter, with XP Pro, it is even easier,,, normally no drivers to reload, XP does it all. But I do have a TON of stuff on my two HD's, CD burning software, DVD burning software plus all kinds of ,well stuff..

However, XP is not as needy of  annual formatting as the older versions, it seems to police itself better.

I will test drive for a while and see if the 8 bugs I squished make a difference

[Neon]

Check to be sure that Norton AV is not disabled.

[Bubba]

Hey NeOn,,, as far as I know YES, all up to date,,, I check the "update" thing on them constantly,,,,,


So does Norton SUCK or what ???

Why did the up-to-date Norton not find those 8 bugs ????
Now there are rumors that Norton creates viruses to keep you paying for renewals,,,,,,,,dang' Republicans

[johnamazing]

You ID'd 8 virusus?

If Norton missed 8 virusus, then something is not correct.
Corruption from some malware can knock out a firewall or AV product.

You might consider starting over with Norton if your test run doesn't work out.  Big fan of the do-over!

Johnny D

[Bubba]

Like I said,,, does Norton Suck ?

Just did the live update, said all definitions are up to date.

set to scan all in and out email, always "on" when online, do I need to bottle-feed Norton  ?

[pat]

It could.
In fairness though, I recently cleaned up a system that was using Mcafee that also had up to date definitions. The on-line scan from Trend Micro found virus that Mcafee didn?t. I just went ahead and replaced the Mcafee program with the current offering from Trend Micro. Even then I had a hard time removing the viruses, I had to set it to delete the viruses as the first action.

[Chandler]

Norton won't scan for all the spyware that Ad-aware and Spybot do, but should find "proper" viruses.  Of course, a firewall is also required these days too.

[Whizbang]

I have had at least three fail at one time or other.  AVG freebie saved my neck at least four times; so I paid them for the effort and went to the PRO, only to fail to get any tech support when I needed it.  Trend Micro kept identifying my Wingate networking program as the Wingate virus.  McAfee crashed my system every time I tried installing it.

My conclusion is that none are perfect, and the best one is going to be the one that gives you the best tech support, if you can get it at all.

[pat]

I've emailed Trend Micro Tech support twice and both times got replys in less than 12 hours.

[sentofuno]

i use Trend Micro's PC-Cillin 2002 (mainly as it came free with my motherboard) and the one time i know of that i really needed it it worked a treat. i recommend it, alongside a firewall.

free online checkers may find viruses your paid-for AV program didn't, but an online check can't be set to protect you 'live', only when you go to the site.

[Bubba]

I am test driving a program called StopZilla, it seems to have blocked all the "ghost" IE6 pages, I think it is $29 after 15 days, but for now it works !

Adware, SpyBot, SpyHunter,  would let "stuff" in,, StopZilla is not, so far.

[Nestor]

I know it's presumptouos of me to ask, but I didn't see this question on the thread- have you flushed your temporary Internet cache?

[Bubba]

yup,, about every day !

I use WinWash5, and EmptyTemp, Diskeeper.

[Nestor]

Sorry.

[Bubba]

cool, no problem,,,,

it must be some sort of spyware,, I would get a lot of IE tabs in my taskbar,, as many as 5 or 6, when you left or right clicked on them, they would not open, and you could not kill them, unless you went task manager and ended them there. This happened "with" SpyHunter, Adware, and SpyBot all running in background,,, oh yeah and Norton too. For what ever reason,  the StopZilla is doing what all those others did not do,,,, maybe the free demo works better than the full blown paid for version ????? I paid for SpyHunter a while ago,,, I think I got burned !!!

[iansl]

When I go to certain websites 'ghose popups' just happen, even on firefox,k I think. Maybe you could just try StopZilla or some other popup blocker. Norton and them aren't popup blockers. If you get the stuff at certain sites, that's the problem.

[Bubba]

yeah,,, forgot,, I had PopUp Stopper Pro as well,, but it would still let some by,,,,, it would make a sound when it blocked, but somehow some would still get by,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I have removed or disabled "everything" but the StopZilla program, it must be holding off the enemy quite well.

No ghost web sights or tabs for a few days now.