On Mar 30, 11:31Â pm, niknak1953
wrote:
> I recently downloaded a song from a website that I subscribe to, and when
> doing so , it created and add-on that now gives me pop-up adds everytime I
> connect to the internet. Â I did immediately go to my control panel in
> add/remove , ad removed the add on, but I still keep getting pop-up adds. I
> then tried to do a system restore to a few hours earlier, but the system
> recovery offered only BOLD dates on the calender that were available for
> recovery and they were more than a week earlier.
> The problem with that is I also downloaded NORTON SECURITY SUITE the same
> day I downloaded the song, and I did not want to get rid of that too. I could
> not get the manual recovery to work either. Â I kept getting a message "unable
> to recover system for date choosen please select another date". Â Can someone
> please help me find out if there is an easier way to get rid of these pop-up
> adds, and why system recovery is not working for me???? Â Thank in advance for
> your time
You could (and should) get SR working and Norton is sometimes a
contributing factor to when SR does not work. So much so, they have
special instructions for what to do. See if this sounds like you:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/pfdocs/2005113009323013
So yo have two problems. SR doesn't work and you are getting what
sounds like too many pop up ads. Since you may also have a problem
with choosing SR dates (beside the fact that it doesn't work at all),
we need to fix that too.
There is no such thing as a manual system restore, so I don't know
what you also tried that didn't work. If you think there is, I will
be happy to demonstrate why there isn't when you get your system
working again.
Even if there was such a thing and it it did work you will not relive
your problem of pop up ads.
It is really terrible that some site would install something on your
system in such a way that you can remove it with Add/Remove programs -
what was it called and what did you remove? Generally, that is not
the way to remove browser add ons, so what did you do?
Implementing SR is not a time machine and will only undo (maybe) the
recent symptom and provide temporary relief until you visit that site
or some site like it again. Song sites, lyric sites, etc. are
notorious for having some kind of unpleasant effect after visiting,
but it is possible to frequent them and never pick up a thing or see a
single pop up ad.
Norton has some pop up blocking capability, but that is not what they
do best and is not their focus in their products.
I do not have Norton and I also have zero pop up ads which is of
course the way the world should be.
If you want the best solution for your Internet habits first describe
your system a little more and what browser you are using for the
Internet. If the description includes the words Internet Explorer,
you may need to broaden your horizons and use a browser that has pop
up blocking built in (with special popup blocking ad ons) built in as
one of their key focal features. IE has some popup blocking
capability, but MS is not in that business of ad blocking. You need
to use things where that is their business.
The best pop up blocking combination I know of is the Firefox browser
and the Adblock Plus Add-on. This combination is designed just to
block pop up ads and is updated automatically and regularly. There is
no hosts file to worry about unless something gets by it which at
least for today for me is never. Use of the hosts file is old
fashioned and primitive with the new technology today where there are
much better browsers and addons created just to block popups.
You can download and install HijackThis if you want but doing so will
not fix anything. It will not fix your SR, it will not relieve you of
a single popup ad. It will give you information, but then you need to
interpret the information and decide if you need to do anything or
not. You should run other scans that do fix things first and if there
are things left over, you may want to enlist HijackThis, but not as a
first step. "Download and install HijackThis"? Okay - great - now
what. Oh yeah - "configure things correctly" too. There you go.
If you do use HijackThis and send your report to another site for
interpretation, they are not going to do anything until you do some
other things first if they have half a brain, so it is never, never,
never the first step to problem solving. It is for when you can't
figure out what is going on after you do the basics - which you have
yet to do.
Norton is not the best tool to block popups anyway. It is not
designed to be an effective popup blocker. If that is the reason you
installed it, I would recommend you uninstall it or be ready for other
Norton related annoyances later - besides a malfunctioning SR
process. Norton not only needs special instructions to use SR, but
even needs special instructions from them just to uninstall it:
http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039
Are you brimming with confidence about Norton now?
You should/can certainly have Firefox and IE installed at the same
time, but chances are you will stop using IE altogether once you get
FF going and get the hang of it (minutes). You still need IE for some
things though, but not general Internet browsing so don't contemplate
uninstalling IE - just don't use it unless you are forced to use it.
First provide more information, including your browser info, run some
reputable scans to make reasonably sure your system is clean, download
FF and Adblock Plus, get them working (you will encounter some mental
resistance to the change and a small learning curve to overcome, but
this will soon pass).
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html
http://adblockplus.org/en/
When all that is settled down and Norton is out of the way, we can fix
your SR problem - if you even still have a problem after scanning and
Norton removal (it doesn't make sense to even try to fix it before you
know there are not obvious things in the way). Fixing SR is generally
not too hard after the obvious is eliminated.
To eliminate questions and guessing, please provide additional
information about your system.
Click Start, Run and in the box enter:
msinfo32
Click OK, and when the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select
All, Copy and then paste the information back here.
There will be some personal information (like System Name and User
Name), and whatever appears to be private information to you, just
delete it from the pasted information.
Perform some scans for malicious software, then fix any remaining
issues:
Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware
detection programs:
Malwarebytes (MBAM):
http://malwarebytes.org/
SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS):
http://www.superantispyware.com/
They can be uninstalled later if desired.
Uninstall Norton using their instructions
Install Firefox and Adblock Plus
Test and troubleshoot any remaining SR issues.