computer help
 

anybody know how to get rid of these search bars that some how get put on my computer,my web search is one and the other is i search.:( ....thanks for any help...

go to ur "control Panel" and then "add/remove programs" and there should be one that says something like "My search toolbar" Click the remove button next to that and ur all set. If you want a good search bar that blocks pop ups as well the google tool bar is excellent. Good Luck

If it is a known search bar such as yahoo or google, you can do as the last person mentioned, they remove easy.

If it is one of the ones that are a pain in the neck such as some of the online game seach bars and porn search bars, good luck. I haven't had any luck with programs such as SpyBot and AdAware removing them either. The only luck I have had is if you can find a website that will tell how you to remove it from the registry. That is about the only way your going to get it and it's processes running in the background off of your comptuer.

As a last resort, you can always format your computer and start over. That always helps clean things up anyway. I have an image of mine is set up, so starting from scratch isn't really a problem.

My Web Search (Smiley Central) is what you'll find in your add/remove programs.

AdAware usually get's rid of the spyware and other garbage that you probably don't even know is on your PC. It's always worked great here at work cleaning up after the Dr's load all the garbage on them thinking it's their home PC! :rolleyes:

Good Luck


Tony

After using Spybot here, I had to reset the start page. The programs were getting cleaned, but kept coming up until I realized the start page was hijacked, hasn't been back.

Everytime I restart my computer, my home page changes. I run spybot and spy blocker on mine all the time along with the latest version of Norton. Speaking of which, it's time to run all 3 again.

Dont mean to change topic or anything, but this is somewhat related...

Have you guys seen or heard of the Alphashield???

http://www.alphashield.com/

Its a firewall in a box.....it masks your IP and allows you to be unseen on the web and offers 100% unhackable security or your money back....Im about to buy one and thought some of you guys might be interested.

I think that they are rather bigmouthed in their claims- This stuff won't help against spyware or trojans. (Even when it works correctly)- I do use D-Link product DI604 as a dirt cheap firewall for home networks. Any kind of firewall won't take care of viruses and of user stupidity.

I do use Linux for my surfing and office stuff- on separate PCs.

AlpineRAM

i have used spybot and adaware and i have tried other things mentioned,no luck.any other ideas?....thanks for the replys..

I had some of the "toolbars" you mentioned. Mainly the porn and casino ones. By any chance did you click on a link in someones AIM or AOL profile? Thats how they got on mine.

I got them off by using a combination of Norton, AdAware, and by finding the company that hosts that "program" and using their uninstall directions. They are out there, just VERY difficult to find.

Good luck, I know what a pain those things are.
Jeff

Worse case scenario, you could do what I did after trying everything previously mentioned.

Not fun, very time consuming, potentially computer destroying.

I went through my registry line by line,
deleting every reference to the trojan/spyware/virus, whatever it was I caught.

I had something that added a toolbar, changed my start page,
and redirected any link I clicked on to some porn site.

You could also try doing a search on sites like Mcaffee and Symantec for the name of whatever toolbar you're trying to get rid of, that's if you know what it goes by.

After I did the registery editing, I found the suspect program listed at Symantec,
and they had easy to follow steps to get rid of it.

After going through all that, I updated my tired old Norton Antivirus 2000 to the 2004 version.

Oh, I'm pretty sure I got mine from clicking on a link in a Yahoo profile.


phox

I'd 1st try searching the HD using as unique a string to the item you're trying to remove as possible. Otherwise, you'll have to do a lot of reading. If you manage to find the directory (AKA folder) the program is located you might also find the uninstall program. IF there's one, it should be named something like "unwise*.exe" or "*uninst*.exe" where the asterisk is a wildcard. In other words there may be characters pre or suc-ceeding the root name. If an uninstall program can't be found but you do manage to find the folder which contains the files being used to run the toolbar try just deleting ONLY the folder containing those files. Before doing that, note the names of any *.exe files as they'll be useful in deleting the program from the registry. That would be the final step.

Another option. If it's not in the "Control Panel"'s "Add/Remove Programs" list you can try finding it in the list of currently running processes by: You don't mention which version of Windows you're running but in W98SE you can go to:

Start
Programs
Accessories
System Tools
System Information (select it)

& then go to the "Tools" menu & select "System Configuration Utility"

or the just try typing "msconfig" in the Start/Run/Open line. A tabbed window should pop up with the "General" tab on the far left & the "Startup" tab on the far right. Go to the "Startup" tab & de-select anything you think might be associated with the toolbar. You can always change it back if it doesn't eliminate the toolbar.

The other (final) option, as already mentioned, is to manually edit the registry (not fun & not usually very complete). The best technique I've found is to search on something fairly unique to the item I'm trying to delete. Sometimes there'll be paths listed to the program itself (if you haven't already found it in the 1st option).

Good luck.