Computer question

[MikelaC1]

I have recently discovered an issue with my computer. Whenever I make posts on this site, or read articles on other sites, a random word or two will have the typical hyperlink appearance to it, and it will lead to some sort of strange shopping site, or some such thing, I haven't ever clicked on it. I run my CCleaner and Malware Antibytes, but within no time, its back again. Im running Windows7, with a popup blocker. Does anyone have any idea of what is doing this to me? Apart from GITP, the only sites I visit are CBSSports, TSN, Tangled Web, Ontario Lottery, CIBC, Cogeco, Heart and Stroke Lottery.

[NerdyKris]

You have a virus installed. Probably as a plugin for your browser.

[Douglas]

Yeah, check your browser plugins. I've seen this exact issue get posted about a few times before, and each time it turned out to be a browser plugin that somehow got installed without the poster's knowledge.

[Jimorian]

Take a look at this recent thread here about virus scanners (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=285798) for some other options to try for scanning it out (just make sure that after the process is done, you only leave one program as your active scanner, otherwise conflicting scanners can cause other issues).

I had some kind of hijacking add-on a while back that called itself "Mozilla Safe Browsing", so be aware that the name is likely to be misleading like that, and it took Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool (link in first post of the above thread) to finally get rid of it because all my other virus/spyware scanners missed it.

[ShadowFireLance]

Oh, I had this a while ago, It was horrible. Disabling plugins helps.

[MikelaC1]

I disabled some plugin from an unknown source called Web Assistant, its described as a Browser Helper Object, and the problem seems to have gone away. As an aside, there is another object called Blog This in Windows Writer Live from another unknown source. Disabling it earlier in the day did not solve the problem so I re-enabled it, but I am wondering if anyone has heard of this plugin and if it should be disabled. Its hard to know what plugins are legit and which ones are troublesome.

[happyturtle]

Best bet is to disable them all and only re-enable the ones you miss.

[TuggyNE]

I disabled some plugin from an unknown source called Web Assistant, its described as a Browser Helper Object, and the problem seems to have gone away. As an aside, there is another object called Blog This in Windows Writer Live from another unknown source. Disabling it earlier in the day did not solve the problem so I re-enabled it, but I am wondering if anyone has heard of this plugin and if it should be disabled. Its hard to know what plugins are legit and which ones are troublesome.

Windows Live Writer is legitimate, although the plugin may or may not actually be WLW's, and of course if you don't use Live Writer it doesn't matter.

[KacyCrawford]

Oh that is really awkward. ah.