Possible adware? IE keeps showing me unfamiliar sites as bookmarks?

Question

Whenever I open a new tab on internet explorer, under 'recent bookmarks', since yesterday, Internet Explorer is showing me that I've recently bookmarked sites I haven't ever looked at which are completely unfamiliar to me. (Some of the pages include, A site about postcolonialism, song lyrics for a band called screaming weasel, incredible face paintings, and aluminium screens.) When I look at my real bookmarks under 'favourites' on the toolbar, these aren't listed. I never bookmarked these sites and I don't know what's causing it. Would I be right to suspect adware? I have Norton 360 installed but it hasn't detected any viruses recently.

Does anyone know what is causing this and how I find and remove whatever it is. Thanks :)

Answer 1

This sort of crap is often included with some 'shareware'** software you installed ... the authors of such software get paid to 'advertise' ... so it's not (really) a virus and your virus scanner won't flag it ...



Get 'Hijack This' (the free one) and examine all the MSIE 'add-ons' .. (typically the add-on will show up as HKCU or 'Toolbar' ) and delete the offender ....



Next time, avoid installing anything that is 'ad supported' .. (or better, get Firefox, since most of the 'free stuff' still only targets MSIE)





**Adobe & Dell etc. are also guiltily of this sort of crap behavior, BUT they only advertises other Adobe / Dell etc. stuff .. so you know who to kill :-)

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

If you can, remove Norton 360 BEFORE you run any programs. The new stuff infects Nortons and it won't come out while it's installed. Use a Nortons Removal Tool.(google search will find it) Go to download.com and download malwarebytes and update it. Don't run then though. Turn off your computer and start tapping the F8 key. You should have an option to run in safe mode. If you missed it keep doing it untill you see the option. Run malwarebytes and remove any infections it says you have. I'd also download Spybot Search and destroy and run it. You can always install Nortons again AFTER you clean it. It's good to get in the habit of running your cleaning programs in safe mode.

Answer 4

With both Norton Internet Security and Norton 360, free e-mail and chat support is available as well as free phone support.



They also have auto fix technology which will diagnose and fix common problems.

Use this dedicated support - you've paid for it.



Also, worth noting times these things have happened by looking at Temporary Internet Files :

Internet Explorer, Internet Options, Browsing History, Settings, View Files.

Look down Internet Address and Last Accessed to see URL of site, with time/date.



Need to know if others may have access to computer, what type of connection (wireless?).



Worth using Norton Support first.



All the best.

Answer 5

acquire, CCleaner and run it to eliminate uneeded data, history and cookies. acquire, replace and run Malwarebytes and Spybot seek And wreck. Disconnect your pc from the internet.attempt malwarebytes first to be certain if it gets rid of the priority. If not then run Spybot. Spybot could teach you to reboot so it could eliminate it till now it easily opens on startup. easily there's a remover referred to as Vundofix you could acquire for unfastened. in case you nevertheless have the priority you will be able to could desire to reformat and set up living house windows clean.

Answer 6

Install Panda Cloud antivirus and install Malwarebytes antimalware. Scan with both.



http://www.cloudantivirus.com/

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Answer 7

i wud go to malwarebytes.org download malwarebytes anti malware for free and run the scan and remove to take that crap off