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General discussion

Microsoft Internet Explorer Toolbar Settings

Mar 11, 2004 11:46AM PST

My computer is a Gateway 500. Approximately 5 years old with Windows 98 and Office Professional 2000. I've had major issues that caused me to need to reformat and restore. I'm still cleaning up and actually plan to update to Windows 2000 since I don't feel I have enough memory for Windows XP.

My problem is I have a toolbar that returns as a checked choice when I turn on my computer and open IE. It's VgaFacePure and I have no clue as to where or how it got on my computer. I prefer the Google toolbar but it is unchecked when I log on so that I have to recheck.

My question is how do I get rid of the unwanted toolbar and what do I do to keep the ones I want to remain checked. Is there something about how I installed Windows that is keeping this "save" from staying as it was when I log off and back on?

Thank you in advance for any suggestion &/or help. Also, it's been a VERY LONG time since I've posted a question to this site so I hope I can remember how to look for my post (LOL)!

Discussion is locked

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Re:Microsoft Internet Explorer Toolbar Settings
Mar 11, 2004 2:00PM PST

I would suspect that spyware or adware is likely causing your problem. If you go to http://www.pcworld.com, you can download free "Ad-aware" and "Spybot". Install, update, and run scan with these utilities. Delete any adware and spyware that is found.

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Re:Microsoft Internet Explorer Toolbar Settings
Mar 11, 2004 8:26PM PST

Drive by downloader install not only toolbars but SPYWARE that can leak information back home. Given that such is fairly rampant now, I have a somewhat canned response about pests and parasites. Parasites is the term I use to include not only the virus, trojan and such that your antivirus may catch, but also the uninvited spyware, toolbars, malware, adware and more that are installed as you use IE. Given how badly most of this stuff behaves and costs users hundreds of dollars to take the machine to the service shop, my tolerence level to parasites is zero.

Parasite removal programs.

http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6132-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=1313&start=0 notes the five scanning tools and removal tools that are fairly safe. If one does encounter an issue, its always been damage done by the MALWARE. The most common issue being Layered Service Provider replacement which you can use LSPFIX (Hint: use http://www.google.com to find).

The thread has follow on discussions about new links if you don't want to use Google to find an item.

Bob

PS. All the tools are free.