[akane_t]

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

And if you do reinstall Windows, do yourself a favor and stop using IE.

I have been using Firefox for the past year or so but before then, I used IE exclusively. I must say that I have personally not had any problems whatsoever with IE. The only reason why I chose to use Firefox over IE was tabbed browsing on Firefox. For some websites (I guess because they are designed with IE in mind?), I still have to use IE because Firefox doesn't handle them well. I prefer Firefox over IE overall but I've never understood why so many people attack IE so vigorously.

[MoriartyL]

One of the reasons I attack IE so vigorously is because I have experience with IE messing things up in Windows and letting all sorts of malware in. Another reason is that I have experience with IE encouraging users to mess websites up, but that's a different story.

[pinkgothic]

akane_t, you are my new hero. Browser agnosticism FTW!

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by pinkgothic

akane_t, you are my new hero. Browser agnosticism FTW!

Every time someone mentions agnosticism I have to think of that lovely Half-Silverdragon agnostic cleric...



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[ssa]

Originally Posted by akane_t

I prefer Firefox over IE overall but I've never understood why so many people attack IE so vigorously.

I've noticed that it's quicker and safer now than it used to be.
But fact remains that since I got through to my daughter about not using IE, she hasn't had any infections of any kind, and she can still do everything she did before. It's been almost a year now.

I wanna know: When do anyone NEED to use IE?

[MoriartyL]

In some cases IE doesn't strictly follow the widely accepted HTML rules. Microsoft has their own ideas about how web pages ought to be written, that were never standardized. So some pages designed specifically for Internet Explorer won't display correctly on any other browser.

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

The truth is that MS was involved in HTML standards committees, as were other corporate entities, and they weren't the only ones to support their own flavor of HTML.

[Jazhara7]

Their own HTML standards...

I'd like to add that my sister made me swear not to use Microsoft Frontpage if I ever create a website, because the code it creates is atrocious to read.

I have and plan to continue to do so, honoured that promise at all times.



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[Erwin_Br]

I must be a very special or lucky guy never having to remove any spyware and other shit, while I use IE daily. I also have Opera installed, but don't use it that often.

--Erwin

[rlpw]

Originally Posted by pinkgothic

akane_t, you are my new hero. Browser agnosticism FTW!

That was hilarious Pinky!

[Jeysie]

Originally Posted by Erwin_Br

I must be a very special or lucky guy never having to remove any spyware and other shit, while I use IE daily. I also have Opera installed, but don't use it that often.

Heh. Well, it's certainly possible to use IE "safely", provided you set up the right security settings and whatnot. I've never had any spyware or viruses or such on my computer, even back when I used IE.

I just eventually found it easier to wipe IE completely and use Opera (and very occasionally FireFox) myself, though.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

Their own HTML standards...

I'd like to add that my sister made me swear not to use Microsoft Frontpage if I ever create a website, because the code it creates is atrocious to read.

I have and plan to continue to do so, honoured that promise at all times.



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And well you should. MS Frontpage doesn't roundtrip very well and never has. It's a bad HTML authoring platform.

But that has little to do with IE vs. other browsers rendering of HTML, which are all authoring platform agnostic.

[saucyminx]

I'm back. It also means that my problem still has not gone away.

I've tried everything that everyone has advised me. I've tried various anti-spywares, anti-malwares, anti-jerkwares... you name it. I've tried them all. I've scanned my computer with these programs and anti-virus. I've used Ad-Aware, Spybot, Counter-Spy, Trojan Hunter... each program has reported that my computer is clean. Even if they've found anything, the program said they've removed the malicious content. With my anti-virus software, I've rescanned my comp. Again, it says my computer is clean. I've set up my Firewall at "High". I have "Ad Block Plus" active. I have pop-up blocker active. I don't visit high-risk sites like porno sites, illegal .mp3 sites and etc. The websites I go to a lot are my University portal, my email Inbox, blog, medical forums and news.

So why the hell does IE keeps popping out adverts at me like a goddamned virus? Today it popped out nearly 20 times in a row, and if I had my period, I'd probably have smashed my laptop against the wall. I'm being driven mad by this infuriating piece of crap. In fact, my computer is at its worse now, instead of getting better. My messenger keeps crashing. My browser keeps crashing. What the hell has infected my computer so badly? And why won't it come up in sweep scans?

The worst part is that, I can't even go into Safe Mode. I tried to follow someone's advice and scan my comp on Safe Mode, but strangely enough, when I press F8 as I boot up my laptop, I can't obtain the option. It only gives me the option to go into XP.

So other than reformating my hard-disk, does anyone have anymore solution I can use?

*edit: These frequent popups are also interfering other programs too. For example, when I'm playing a game, the pop-up forces my game to shut down and takes precedence as the primary running program. When I'm watching a movie, the pop-up forces the DVD screen to minimize. It's extremely pissing off!

Again, I am NOT using IE, and these frequent pop-ups occur even when I am not surfing the Web.

[tabacco]

Could be the Windows Messenger service, maybe? Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services -- right click on "Messenger" and choose "Stop" if it's Started. The right-click and go to properties, and change it to Manual start mode.

[saucyminx]

I did that, too. Also, I don't use MSN Messenger as my primary messenger. I'm using Yahoo. And I've disabled whatever startup programs they have and their "extras".

[tabacco]

MSN Messenger isn't the same as the Messenger service. Messenger is designed to accept system notices from remote computers. It can be abused by spammers if the port is open and the service is running to create popups on your machine.

[saucyminx]

Oh ok.

Well, I've looked again, and Messenger is "disabled". So that can't be it either.

[MoriartyL]

Wow, this sounds terrible. I wish I knew what to tell you.

[saucyminx]

Okay. I tried another tactic this time, and it seems to work.

I downloaded another version of Ad-Aware, because it seems that the previous version had a bug which doesn't allow it to update itself (I discovered this through a help forum). I put all my files and folders on "visible"... just in case. I rescanned everything and this time it actually uncovered a couple more bad cookies and crap and I've eliminated them. I also reinstalled Internet Explorer (vs. 7) and I set the Security Level to "High".

And voila! It's been 12 hours since and no pop-ups... yet. I'm sitting back and crossing my fingers and am hoping that it'll last for a week. Maybe then I'll be convinced that my pop-up nightmare is over.

[Erwin_Br]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but let Windows automatically download and install their monthly patches. People often underestimate the importance of these patches. You almost can't go online without Service Pack 2, for example. (Without SP1, it's even impossible not to get in trouble)

--Erwin