Pop Up Ads and other Crap going on with my compuer

Bleedred

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 21, 2001
9,968
Boston, MA
I have the Lenovo T440s laptop.   Great machine.  Windows defender is running, I just did a full scan and it didn't detect anything.  Yet, I keep seeing odd pop ups and advertising sites, etc., that keep tormenting me.  Also, when I click on Chrome, it doesn't go straight to the google start page (which it's set up to do) but some other search page.  I've looked to uninstall "crap" programs but I'm not savvy enough to know what I need to preserve and what I can uninstall.  I don't really know what the next step is, but is there something I should be doing to insure my computer runs smoothly.
 
I'm really tech deficient, so please speak to me like I'm a 2nd grader if you have any suggestions.
 
Thanks, Bleedred
 
Edit:  For example:  I keep seeing "Ad Choice" or "Ads by priceless" seemingly infecting sites I visit with banner adds above or below, or generally messing with the pages.  It's infuriating.  
 

SuperManny

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SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
757
Washington, DC
Its been a couple years since I've had to deal with something like this but I'm a fan of Malwarebytes, which has a free version. It doesn't get everything but it has a decent hit rate and is a good place to start. 
 

Bleedred

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Feb 21, 2001
9,968
Boston, MA
SuperManny said:
Its been a couple years since I've had to deal with something like this but I'm a fan of Malwarebytes, which has a free version. It doesn't get everything but it has a decent hit rate and is a good place to start. 
This didn't work
 

Couperin47

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SoSH Member
The days when there are any free programs to do a decent job of protection are long gone. OTOH some of the best programs that actually work are available for very little: in the past 2 weeks I've posted sales on both ESET Nod32 and Webroot, which are 2 of the best, work very well together, and could be had for under $20 total. They do have to be configured properly because no modern product can read your mind as to what you want to allow and what sort of work you do, but properly configured they catch and block install of the sorts of malware (not just obvious virus stuff) which the free programs don't even try to detect. hell today Newegg has Nod32 on sale for all of $13...see the tech bargain thread...
 

Bleedred

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SoSH Member
Feb 21, 2001
9,968
Boston, MA
Couperin47 said:
The days when there are any free programs to do a decent job of protection are long gone. OTOH some of the best programs that actually work are available for very little: in the past 2 weeks I've posted sales on both ESET Nod32 and Webroot, which are 2 of the best, work very well together, and could be had for under $20 total. They do have to be configured properly because no modern product can read your mind as to what you want to allow and what sort of work you do, but properly configured they catch and block install of the sorts of malware (not just obvious virus stuff) which the free programs don't even try to detect. hell today Newegg has Nod32 on sale for all of $13...see the tech bargain thread...
See, I'm not sure what "properly configured" even means.   Is the Newegg Nod32 product something I download on to my laptop and once downloaded, it will kill the "Ad by Priceless" and "Ad Choice" stuff automatically, or will I have to do something after downloading?   I also didn't see the Nod32 offer in the bargain thread, but I suppose I can search online.  
 
Edit:  Downloaded ESET Nod 32 for a 30 day trial basis.  I'll keep my fingers crossed!
 

Bleedred

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SoSH Member
Feb 21, 2001
9,968
Boston, MA
downloading ESET Nod 32 and reinstalling google chrome seems to have helped (not perfect).   Any thoughts on the value of "Ad-Block Plus" for Mozilla firefox after reinstalling?
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
Bleedred said:
downloading ESET Nod 32 and reinstalling google chrome seems to have helped (not perfect).   Any thoughts on the value of "Ad-Block Plus" for Mozilla firefox after reinstalling?
 
Yes. Sadly once upon a time you could allow ads from 'trusted sites', today that's impossible: ads may be supplied by the largest and most responsible parties, but today many ads you see actually are sourced from more than one service , these always seem to include the 2nd tier companies that have no ethics, will accept almost anything or are easily poisoned. Until the whole marketplace cleans up their act, you cannot trust the ads you see anywhere... including here at SOSH. Ad-Block is now becoming a REQUIRED line of defense,. after install, in the options, you also need to uncheck the option to "allow some non-intrusive advertising".  The author of Ad-Block 'sold out' and added this to get backing from some in the industry... this lead to a huge furor, in fact unchecking this one option blocks everything and again, this is sadly necessary since, neither the site you're visiting or even their main purveyor of ads can assure you everything they are pushing is clean anymore. And it's available for Chrome and all flavors of Mozilla (FF), for my own favorite Palemoon there is a fork AdBlock Latitude available on the Palemoon site.
 
Take the time to open NOD32 > Setup > Enter Advanced Setup
 
In the tree on the left open up the settings.. yes there are many, understand what "potentially unwanted" and "potentially malicious" programs are, set higher levels of heuristics (sensing when something malicious may be happening, without actually recognizing the particular malevolent code...) etc.  If you don't play around in dangerous waters, you can probably set these very high and not notice anything restricting the way you use your computer... and you will be much safer. Many who claim even a good AV program didn't fully protect them, never set it up so it could do it's job. No program comes out-of-the-box set to maximum protection... that would result in constant warnings to the client and probably be too annoying.;
 

Bleedred

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 21, 2001
9,968
Boston, MA
Couperin47 said:
 
Yes. Sadly once upon a time you could allow ads from 'trusted sites', today that's impossible: ads may be supplied by the largest and most responsible parties, but today many ads you see actually are sourced from more than one service , these always seem to include the 2nd tier companies that have no ethics, will accept almost anything or are easily poisoned. Until the whole marketplace cleans up their act, you cannot trust the ads you see anywhere... including here at SOSH. Ad-Block is now becoming a REQUIRED line of defense,. after install, in the options, you also need to uncheck the option to "allow some non-intrusive advertising".  The author of Ad-Block 'sold out' and added this to get backing from some in the industry... this lead to a huge furor, in fact unchecking this one option blocks everything and again, this is sadly necessary since, neither the site you're visiting or even their main purveyor of ads can assure you everything they are pushing is clean anymore. And it's available for Chrome and all flavors of Mozilla (FF), for my own favorite Palemoon there is a fork AdBlock Latitude available on the Palemoon site.
 
Take the time to open NOD32 > Setup > Enter Advanced Setup
 
In the tree on the left open up the settings.. yes there are many, understand what "potentially unwanted" and "potentially malicious" programs are, set higher levels of heuristics (sensing when something malicious may be happening, without actually recognizing the particular malevolent code...) etc.  If you don't play around in dangerous waters, you can probably set these very high and not notice anything restricting the way you use your computer... and you will be much safer. Many who claim even a good AV program didn't fully protect them, never set it up so it could do it's job. No program comes out-of-the-box set to maximum protection... that would result in constant warnings to the client and probably be too annoying.;
This is great.  Couple of Questions:
 
Do I need to be in the particular browser when I download ad-block?
 
I've downloaded NOD32. I thought it was already set up, but I need to go back in both in Chrome and Mozilla to set up advanced set up.  If so, how do I do that?
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
Bleedred said:
This is great.  Couple of Questions:
 
Do I need to be in the particular browser when I download ad-block?
 
I've downloaded NOD32. I thought it was already set up, but I need to go back in both in Chrome and Mozilla to set up advanced set up.  If so, how do I do that?
 
Yes, in the case of Chrome & any Mozilla browser, you have to download the appropriate version of Adblock from within that browser.
 
Nod32 is a stand alone program, once installed it has no relationship to any browser, look for its "e' icon in your toolbox or under ESET NOD32 Antivirus in Programs and open it's interface to find the setup (gear wheel icon) on the left and the 'Enter advanced setup" link thereafter in the Setup panel.
 

Couperin47

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SoSH Member
HriniakPosterChild said:
 
 
I don't see that option on any of the AdBlock configuration menus. I am running the Mac version of Chrome.
 
 
After the 'sellout' ruckus, Adblock was forked into several versions, good chance you're not running Ad Block Plus, which has that option, there are differing opinions on which is 'the best' version, the ethics of the Plus version and that option, blah blah blah. Ad Block Latitude, the fork that runs on Palemoon (the 64 bit fork of Firefox, I prefer and run) also omits that option.
 

Bleedred

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Feb 21, 2001
9,968
Boston, MA
Couperin47 said:
 
Yes, in the case of Chrome & any Mozilla browser, you have to download the appropriate version of Adblock from within that browser.
 
Nod32 is a stand alone program, once installed it has no relationship to any browser, look for its "e' icon in your toolbox or under ESET NOD32 Antivirus in Programs and open it's interface to find the setup (gear wheel icon) on the left and the 'Enter advanced setup" link thereafter in the Setup panel.
I have windows 8...I know I downloaded and installed Nod32, but can't seem to find it.  Where's the toolbox (I have a pc, not a mac)?
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
Bleedred said:
I have windows 8...I know I downloaded and installed Nod32, but can't seem to find it.  Where's the toolbox (I have a pc, not a mac)?
 
Sorry, the toolbox is the right end of the quicklaunch toolbar which is not turned on in stock 8.1.  You might want to consider installing Classic Shell http://www.classicshell.net/downloads/ which is free and allows Win 8.1 to look/feel like 7 or even XP after it's configured. This returns sensible program menus etc. and escapes the mess that 8/8.1 foisted upon the world (much of this is, btw being 'fixed' in the upcoming Win 10, which is Microsoft's admission of what a colossal mistake 8/8.1 interfaces were.) Meanwhile you should be able to find ESET Nod32 under whatever programs menu you're currently seeing. I don't have any Win 8.1 native interface running here as it's too stupid/painful to ever deal with....
 

Bleedred

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Feb 21, 2001
9,968
Boston, MA
Couperin47 said:
 
Sorry, the toolbox is the right end of the quicklaunch toolbar which is not turned on in stock 8.1.  You might want to consider installing Classic Shell http://www.classicshell.net/downloads/ which is free and allows Win 8.1 to look/feel like 7 or even XP after it's configured. This returns sensible program menus etc. and escapes the mess that 8/8.1 foisted upon the world (much of this is, btw being 'fixed' in the upcoming Win 10, which is Microsoft's admission of what a colossal mistake 8/8.1 interfaces were.) Meanwhile you should be able to find ESET Nod32 under whatever programs menu you're currently seeing. I don't have any Win 8.1 native interface running here as it's too stupid/painful to ever deal with....
I want to click on the "Classic Shell 4.1.0 (English)"?