Computer isn't playing ball

[lewis1641]

Howdy. Slight issue with my computer. Every now and then it opens a new window and loads up a site. The window i am in is the main one on the page so i can just right click and close at the bottom of the screen. Problem is sometimes these sites are less than desireable.

Is there anything i can do? Computer has norton antivirus if that is relevant.

 

[JohnH]

Some websites do this deliberately. Is there a pattern to the kind of websites that are opening other windows for you (e.g. gambling sites, bittorrent sites)?

 

[lewis1641]

Yeah mainly a chinese video playing site, gambling and this morning, porn

 

[mattbrown]

yep, just how the internets is evolving, can try good old FF and adblock plus.

 

[JohnH]

Yeah mainly a chinese video playing site, gambling and this morning, p*rn

So... are these the sites that you're choosing to visit, or are these the sites that are popping up without your permission?

 

[lewis1641]

Yeah mainly a chinese video playing site, gambling and this morning, p*rn

So... are these the sites that you're choosing to visit, or are these the sites that are popping up without your permission?

they are just opening. not as a pop up though - they are opening themselves in a new window.

 

[legrandefromage]

A good way to knock this on the head is to run the MSconfig function:

''Most people know that the more programs you have running on your computer at once, the more likely it is that your computer will either run slowly or even crash. What most people don't know is that every time you boot your computer a whole mess of "hidden" programs load in the background. Some of these hidden programs are essential, but most aren't. Turning off some of these hidden programs can significantly increase your computer's performance and reliability.''


http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/index.html

Just be aware that theres all sorts of snake oil answers, load this, load that etc, but this is the most basic and effective way of stopping unwanted programs.

 

[JohnH]

Okay, so is this only happening when you visit a certain kind of site (gambling, bittorrent) or is it happening for any site that you visit (Amazon, YouTube)?

 

[IDB1]

Interesting. . .

Just ran MSCONFIG and there's half a dozen boxes ticked by a blank entry :?

 

[legrandefromage]

Interesting. . .

Just ran MSCONFIG and there's half a dozen boxes ticked by a blank entry :?

When my job was repairing PC's and laptops, this was the quickest way of making a PC 'faster' and stopping Limewire type programs from hijacking Explorer and so on.

Then, you could hunt the malicious stuff down and remove it.

Thats how we did it for the likes of Comet, DSG group contracts and we had no complaints or returns.