Why are pop-ups constantly appearing on my computer?

[dduardo]

Moonbear, thanks for supporting the cause. Even though your not using firefox, safari is just as good.

Evo, the difference is that firefox is more secure by design, is more customizable, has a better user interface and SUPPORTS WEB STANDARDS.

 

[Evo]

I like the tabs best with my Mac and Safari (I've been cautioned, I think by someone here, that Firefox isn't all that up to snuff for Macs, so stick to Safari), mainly because there is no task bar and I set the "dock" which functions somewhat like a task bar to be hidden until I mouse down to where it is. It gives me a very uncluttered screen.

Evo, when I first heard about tabs and figured out what they were, I had the same reaction as you have...big deal, who needs them? But, now that I have them and use them, I can't imagine going back to having to sift through multiple windows.

I don't sift through multiple windows and I usually have quite a few open.

Pehaps Matt can open 20 windows and show me a difference?

 

[mattmns]

Evo, open up 8 "tabs" with IE, then open up another program or two, and post a screenshot of your taskbar. I will do the same with firefox and 8 tabs. You will see that there is a lot more space on firefox, which allows you to see what is going on with what webpages you have open. If you have IE open and do not use any other programs at all, and have a very wide tasbar, maybe one with 2 or 3 or 4 stacks, then it is ok, but then you are taking up more space again.

 

[Moonbear]

I'm serious, my tabs start off large and as I add more they get smaller. What's the difference?

I've seen firefox, I don't use it. You guys haven't explained what the difference is.

What you have with IE are "buttons" on the task bar for your open IE windows PLUS all your other open applications. With Firefox (or any of the other browsers), when you are in the browser window, all your tabs for open pages are up across the top that with a single click you can bounce back and forth to whatever one you want, and then there's still lots of room at the bottom on your task bar for you to see the other applications you have open.

The other thing I like about tabs is that when I have multiple windows open instead of tabs, I have this problem where there's a little bit of one window peeking out from under another, so as I'm mousing over and dragging my scroll bar to read, I end up accidentally clicking on the window beneath it and moving that one on top. With tabs, that just can't happen.

Though, on a Mac, I have to keep going to the window menu to switch between windows unless I'm minimizing them everytime I look for another, so it really makes a huge difference for me to have tabs instead.

 

[Evo]

Moonbear, thanks for supporting the cause. Even though your not using firefox, safari is just as good.

Evo, the difference is that firefox is more secure by design, is more customizable, has a better user interface and SUPPORTS WEB STANDARDS.

I'm not supporting IE, as I've previously mentioned I never liked it, Netscape was better, but 1) I have to use it for work, the systems I use are made to where they only work on IE and 2)I've never had any problems with windows. I just don't see anything (yet) in Firefox that I would "personally" see as a benefit for how I use the computer. You use your computer a lot differently than I do.

 

[mattmns]

I don't sift through multiple windows and I usually have quite a few open.

Pehaps Matt can open 20 windows and show me a difference?

20 windows is a bit much, I am not sure if I have that many programs even installed. Here is a screenshot with 10 tabs open in Firefox, and 10 windows open on the taskbar. Personally if it was not for the icons, I could probably not make out what some of the things were on the taskbar. On firefox, however, due to the extra space, I can see more info with the same amount of "tabs" open.

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/980/multiplewindows25uj.png

 

[Evo]

What you have with IE are "buttons" on the task bar for your open IE windows PLUS all your other open applications. With Firefox (or any of the other browsers), when you are in the browser window, all your tabs for open pages are up across the top that with a single click you can bounce back and forth to whatever one you want, and then there's still lots of room at the bottom on your task bar for you to see the other applications you have open.

Aha, thanks, now I understand. I have somewhat of a photographic memory. (when I get enough sleep). Remembering what the "buttons" are is not a problem for me. If I'm not sure, for some reason, the second the cursor is over the button it displays the title, so if I "was" wrong, I'd know not to open it.

The other thing I like about tabs is that when I have multiple windows open instead of tabs, I have this problem where there's a little bit of one window peeking out from under another, so as I'm mousing over and dragging my scroll bar to read, I end up accidentally clicking on the window beneath it and moving that one on top. With tabs, that just can't happen.

My windows all open the same size, I don't have that issue.

 

[dduardo]

Evo, you stubborn mule, have you every tried firefox?

 

[Evo]

Evo, open up 8 "tabs" with IE, then open up another program or two, and post a screenshot of your taskbar. I will do the same with firefox and 8 tabs. You will see that there is a lot more space on firefox, which allows you to see what is going on with what webpages you have open. If you have IE open and do not use any other programs at all, and have a very wide tasbar, maybe one with 2 or 3 or 4 stacks, then it is ok, but then you are taking up more space again.

Let me ask you something. When I open your screen shot, I have to scroll to the right to see everything. Are you just posting a larger than life screen shot or do you actually have to scroll to the right to see your entire screen?

 

[mattmns]

Yeah Fx is not just tabs, there are an insane amount of features that many people do not know about. You can customize firefox to pretty much do whatever you want. One thing I like is a feature called keywords. You can bookmark a site and give it a keyword of "sd" for slashdot, or whatever you want. Then if you want to goto slashdot you just have to type "sd" and press enter (without the quote marks). You can also do this for searches. For example, I have google setup so that I can type "g firefox rocks" and I will be taken to a google search of "firefox rocks" You can do this for pretty much any search and any webpage. Also, as you can see in my screenshots, I do not really use the refresh, home, forward, etc., buttons. Instead I have removed them, moved up my location bar, and now use mouse gestures for those actions and a few others. The features go on and on, but you will not know what you are missing out on until you try it for yourself.

 

[dduardo]

I see the whole screenshot without having to scroll. What resolution are you using? I'm at 1280x1024.

 

[Evo]

Evo, you stubborn mule, have you every tried firefox?

No, I'm on my daughter's computer right now. At home I've always used my work laptop. I've been someone's computer that had it but nothing caugh my attention, like "wow, this is awesome". But I just checked my e-mail.

Seriously, 99% of what I do is work related and firefox isn't even an option. Probably never will be.

 

[mattmns]

Let me ask you something. When I open your screen shot, I have to scroll to the right to see everything. Are you just posting a larger than life screen shot or do you actually have to scroll to the right to see your entire screen?

My screen resolution is just large than yours. I do not scroll at all.

 

[Evo]

I see the whole screenshot without having to scroll. What resolution are you using? I'm at 1280x1024.

1024x768...

 

[Moonbear]

Let me ask you something. When I open your screen shot, I have to scroll to the right to see everything. Are you just posting a larger than life screen shot or do you actually have to scroll to the right to see your entire screen?

I think he's posting a larger than life screenshot. I've never seen anything that required scrolling sideways to view the whole screen (except on the occassional web page that gets all stretched out by the content).

My windows all open the same size, I don't have that issue.

Mine all open the same size, but there's still always a teensy space on either side. I think Monique mentioned this problem once before too, and she uses PCs (I think she's mentioned using IE too), so I know it's not just a Mac issue, or related to a particular browser.

 

[Moonbear]

1024x768...

Aha! That's what my screen resolution is too. That's why we both had to scroll on his screenshot.

 

[mattmns]

1024x768...

That is definitely it. I am using 1152 x 864 (I know its an awkward size, but it fits me perfect )

 

[Evo]

Yeah Fx is not just tabs, there are an insane amount of features that many people do not know about. You can customize firefox to pretty much do whatever you want. One thing I like is a feature called keywords. You can bookmark a site and give it a keyword of "sd" for slashdot, or whatever you want. Then if you want to goto slashdot you just have to type "sd" and press enter (without the quote marks). You can also do this for searches. For example, I have google setup so that I can type "g firefox rocks" and I will be taken to a google search of "firefox rocks" You can do this for pretty much any search and any webpage. Also, as you can see in my screenshots, I do not really use the refresh, home, forward, etc., buttons. Instead I have removed them, moved up my location bar, and now use mouse gestures for those actions and a few others. The features go on and on, but you will not know what you are missing out on until you try it for yourself.

Ah, see, I don't need these things. At work, I type in short keywords in the address bar and it takes me to that page, if I don't already have it open, which I usually do. That kind of function is already set up by my work.

Anyway, we have really hijacked the OP's problem, but this is LOTS of great information about Firefox.

What about all those weird problems people are having with icons? I died laughing the time someone posted a screen shot showing Zz's avatar as Dextercioby's.

 

[mattmns]

Yeah, for some reason it only happens here at pf. *points at Greg*

 

[Evo]

Mine all open the same size, but there's still always a teensy space on either side. I think Monique mentioned this problem once before too, and she uses PCs (I think she's mentioned using IE too), so I know it's not just a Mac issue, or related to a particular browser.

A friend showed me why that was happening, and fixed it. Don't ask me what he did, it was really simple. I'm not a hardware person, I deal with network "clouds". I call him whenever I have a question on hardware or software.

 

[dduardo]

Evo, I think you need to complain to your company's IT department for their use of proprietary IE technology.

 

[Evo]

Evo, I think you need to complain to your company's IT department for their use of proprietary IE technology.

I work for one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, Microsoft makes custom software for us, they have people assigned to our company to work with our people on developing the stuff, we don't use anything "out of the box", what I have access to is not what everyday people use or can even get their hands on.

 

[Delta]

ok, I've been on the internet for some time now and have got used to locating and removing crap from the net that's got itself on to my PC. I now have Norton, Zonealarm, ewido and ad-aware, and i always have to keep going into the system folders, checking installed programs, looking at the registry and what processes are running.

But now I'm stuck with a few I can't get to ...

There are three messages. First there's the balloon (see balloon.jpg) that pops out from my icon tray. Notice that that word balloon is incorrectly spelt baloon. A file called balloon.wav keeps being created in the windows folder that provides the popping sound. I can't locate any processes i don't recognise, nor any other new dodgy files in my folders. On clicking the balloon i get sent to a windows security centre with a few antivirus titles at the side that don't go anywhere.

The second message is the "security centre" attachment. This comes up less often but is still something recent that i can't locate.

A third message I've yet to capture is more detrimental, because its tends to freeze the screen a few times. Although most often I can still do stuff with open applications (e.g. messenger) just not with explorer itself. Sometimes with this one I have to call up the task manager to restart my machine. The message states that a file I'm trying to open is not available, and points to a file called kernel.exe in the system 32 folder. I created a blank text file and converted it to kernel.exe. And it stopped, although I've yet to restart my pc, so not too sure yet. The difference in this third message is that this one actually appears as an application in task manager. When i click the process it leads to it goes to explorer.exe, which obviously I can't end.

Any ideas were these things are hiding?

Actually another thing, a folder called links keeps creating itself in my favourites folder. If could knock all this on the head, I would be very grateful.

 

[hypermorphism]

Download and run Spybot-Search and Destroy (preferably in Safe Mode with Network Support). After the usual scan, go to Advanced mode and check all the boxes in Tools. Add the Hosts file, and go to Startup, BHO's, and ActiveX and remove/uncheck anything that you do not recognize (use Spybot's right sidebar and Google to look up strange names). Check Windows Add/Remove Programs for strange entries before doing this. Startup is probably where you will find any remaining culprits that Spybot didn't detect. Do not uncheck the last few native windows processes in Startup. Restart into normal mode and use Firefox instead of IE. Make sure the latest Java and Flash plugins are installed.

 

[Delta]

Looks like spybot has done the trick, ta very much for that. Some of the things it found i read a little about and looked in the registry myself and they look like what was causing the grief.

thanx again.