Advertisements driving me nuts

Hi all:

I need some advice. I am running Win 8.1 and Explorer 11. How

can I get rid of these maddening advertisement videos that continually appear on

any web site I visit, seemingly whenever there is empty white space on the page.

They slow the loading of the pages and are driving me nuts. I have both security

and privacy sliders at medium high under internet options. I'm running McAfee. My wife's laptop is

running Vista and doesn't seem to have this problem. Any advice would be

appreciated.

Thanks

Install the Google Chrome browser and then its free AdBlock extension.

Pro: Amazing results, web sites loading quickly, even YouTube's excessive ads get blocked. No cost to test, and easily removed if you don't like the results.

Con: Chrome does consume more cpu cycles than IE, i.e. your computer will run harder while you browse. And Google/Microsoft/Facebook are surely THE corporate Big Brothers when it comes to surveillance of what we do on the Internet.

Not sure if it's the cause, but run a spyware scan with SuperAntiSpyware. (free and good).

Yes I have that and run it every couple weeks. Each time I run it identifies 300 or so of evil files that it then deletes. I'm sure that's good but it doesn't seem to stop the pop ups. Do you guys think FireFox would be better?

Just some thoughts....

300 threats each time is not good! I have 1 occsasionally, usually there's no threats.

I think that means your antivirus may have been bypassed, and there is something nasty on your pc that bypasses the sequrity and allows these spyware things to be installed.

I would run a scan with AVG rescue disk. It's a free download, an .iso file. You burn it to CD. Download and burn on a not infected PC.

Then you put it in the drive and boot your PC from the CD. You run the update option, then run a scan of all the drives.

During this, Windows is not started. So virusses have no way of hiding.

(They can hide from a virusscanner when Windows boots. So your installed scanner can't find them.)

The AVG rescue Disk scan can take a while, but it's very good. It finds all spyware, and virusses, and removes it.

http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd

Also, I would do a browser reset. In case that has some kind of infcted Add-On installed.

In IE that is: Options--Internet Options -- Click the "Reset" button.

A window will pop up with explanation and some options, and an 'OK' Button.

Afterwards, expeccially if the AVG scan found something, Install Free "Malwarebytes Anti malware". And do a full scan. Don't click the tempting "Activate" or "Buy Premium" Buttons. Don't worry, it will be active if you deny all those.

--Malwarebytes (free version) is an on demand scanner. It scans when you want only tell it to. It does not interfere with your current antivirus that scans all the time.

--(Good to know. Malwarebytes paid ('buy premium') does scan all the time.)

And after all that, it may be a good idea to reinstall your own virusscanner McAffee.

Virusscanners need to be installed on a clean PC really. If there is already an infection an installed scanner will have a hard time catching it.

(By the way, The AVG rescue disk is used by the techs hat install AVG on systems for AVG Buissnes Customers. They come on location, clean the PC with the Rescue Disk, and only once the PC is clean do they install the AVG program on it.

Very kindly they offer that Rescue CD for free!).

I ussumed here that you have a Paid McAffe Version. Those scan all the time and protect you from threats as they come in.

If you only use the on demand scanner McAffe offers, it would be a good idea to install something that scans all the time. So you are constantly protected. There are a few free ones, but I would prefer a Paid AV solution myself.

(Your other qestion: Switching to Firefox may stop the popups, but it won't make your PC any safer.)

il88pp

Just some thoughts....

 

300 threats each time is not good! I have 1 occsasionally, usually there's no threats.

 

I think that means your antivirus may have been bypassed, and there is something nasty on your pc that bypasses the sequrity and allows these spyware things to be installed.

 

I would run a scan with AVG rescue disk. It's a free download, an .iso file. You burn it to CD. Download and burn on a not infected PC.

Then you put it in the drive and boot your PC from the CD. You run the update option, then run a scan of all the drives.

During this, Windows is not started. So virusses have no way of hiding.

(They can hide from a virusscanner when Windows boots. So your installed scanner can't find them.)

The AVG rescue Disk scan can take a while, but it's very good. It finds all spyware, and virusses, and removes it.

http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd

 

Also, I would do a browser reset. In case that has some kind of infcted Add-On installed.

In IE that is: Options--Internet Options -- Click the "Reset" button.

A window will pop up with explanation and some options, and an 'OK' Button.

 

Afterwards, expeccially if the AVG scan found something, Install Free "Malwarebytes Anti malware". And do a full scan. Don't click the tempting "Activate" or "Buy Premium" Buttons. Don't worry, it will be active if you deny all those.

--Malwarebytes (free version) is an on demand scanner. It scans when you want only tell it to. It does not interfere with your current antivirus that scans all the time.

--(Good to know. Malwarebytes paid ('buy premium') does scan all the time.)

 

And after all that, it may be a good idea to reinstall your own virusscanner McAffee.

Virusscanners need to be installed on a clean PC really. If there is already an infection an installed scanner will have a hard time catching it.

 

(By the way, The AVG rescue disk is used by the techs hat install AVG on systems for AVG Buissnes Customers. They come on location, clean the PC with the Rescue Disk, and only once the PC is clean do they install the AVG program on it.

Very kindly they offer that Rescue CD for free!).

 

I ussumed here that you have a Paid McAffe Version. Those scan all the time and protect you from threats as they come in.

If you only use the on demand scanner McAffe offers, it would be a good idea to install something that scans all the time. So you are constantly protected. There are a few free ones, but I would prefer a Paid AV solution myself.

 

(Your other qestion: Switching to Firefox may stop the popups, but it won't make your PC any safer.)

 

il88pp

Well, I switched to FireFox and then downloaded a free thing called AdBlock Plus and it made a HUGE improvement. Pop up ads and videos seem to be eliminated. Web pages load almost instantly now. Now I'm going to go back as you suggest and reset Explorer 11.

Thanks for your help. I'll post again afterward.

Rick