Cut it out you yahoos!
August 21, 2012 12:35 PM Subscribe
My wife's computer keeps opening widgets.yahoo.com in a new window again and again and again.... I've poked around, disabled the one thing I thought might be involved in the issue and nothing's changed. Does anyone know how to kill this thing?
This is of course impossible to Google since you get like 400000 pages full of useful information on using Yahoo widgets and I just mostly want to put a stake through the beast's heart and fill it's mouth with holy wafers.
She's running Firefox in a Windows XP environment.
This is of course impossible to Google since you get like 400000 pages full of useful information on using Yahoo widgets and I just mostly want to put a stake through the beast's heart and fill it's mouth with holy wafers.
She's running Firefox in a Windows XP environment.
You might want to start here and start FireFox in safe mode. From there you could also try backing up and deleting your prefs.js to reset FireFox back to its defaults.
posted by samsara at 12:48 PM on August 21, 2012
posted by samsara at 12:48 PM on August 21, 2012
(edit: for safe mode, you'll want to use the command line option...you could modify the shortcut and add -safe-mode to the end of the shortcut path)
posted by samsara at 12:51 PM on August 21, 2012
posted by samsara at 12:51 PM on August 21, 2012
Response by poster: The plot thickens: She just opened something with Google Chrome and Firefox opened up and 15 Yahoo Widgets windows opened. Opening Firefox in safe mode also doesn't help.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 1:04 PM on August 21, 2012
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 1:04 PM on August 21, 2012
Here are two guides by Mefites on how to remove viruses, trojans, malware, etc.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:25 PM on August 21, 2012
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:25 PM on August 21, 2012
That is a thicker plot! How does Internet Explorer fare? Are there any uneeded toolbars or addons you can remove in Add/Remove programs under your Control Panel (I'd start with anything yahoo)? Are you able to get into option/preference dialogs in these browsers and disable all addons/plugins?
Another possibility would be to completely remove Chrome and Firefox via Add/Remove programs then reinstall (opt to not save any configuration data)...it's possible that chrome may have inherited FireFox's settings as it'll commonly import other browser settings upon install to make life easier...but that's just a hunch.
This will be more for the Windows side (but also common points where things could go wrong for internet apps like HOSTS, LSA, etc). Try downloading and installing HijackThis on the computer and run a scan. If you're unsure what to remove, opt to create a backup. You could also paste the scan results to Pastebin too for one of us to look at.
posted by samsara at 1:29 PM on August 21, 2012
Another possibility would be to completely remove Chrome and Firefox via Add/Remove programs then reinstall (opt to not save any configuration data)...it's possible that chrome may have inherited FireFox's settings as it'll commonly import other browser settings upon install to make life easier...but that's just a hunch.
This will be more for the Windows side (but also common points where things could go wrong for internet apps like HOSTS, LSA, etc). Try downloading and installing HijackThis on the computer and run a scan. If you're unsure what to remove, opt to create a backup. You could also paste the scan results to Pastebin too for one of us to look at.
posted by samsara at 1:29 PM on August 21, 2012
I hate to make this recommendation, but the best way to cure this is to reinstall the operating system. You will save yourself hours upon hours of frustration. Hope you have backups.
posted by Captain Chesapeake at 1:42 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Captain Chesapeake at 1:42 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Seconding COD.
Install this:
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
and add
127.0.0.1 widgets.yahoo.com
by hand
posted by yoyo_nyc at 2:12 PM on August 21, 2012
Install this:
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
and add
127.0.0.1 widgets.yahoo.com
by hand
posted by yoyo_nyc at 2:12 PM on August 21, 2012
I wouldn't be surprised if that just prevents the window contents from loading, but the windows themselves still pop up.
posted by intermod at 10:34 PM on August 21, 2012
posted by intermod at 10:34 PM on August 21, 2012
She might also want to search for and then scrape out Flash cookies.
posted by darth_tedious at 12:02 AM on August 22, 2012
posted by darth_tedious at 12:02 AM on August 22, 2012
Best answer: I think you're right intermod. Since FireFox is popping up even though Chrome is being launched, that makes me think something is triggering the default HTML handler. I wonder if Chrome was set as the default browser, whether FF would still launch, or whether it'll be a bunch of Chrome windows/tabs. Either way, the trigger almost seems external to the browser itself, but moreso from something that might be running in memory (which HijackThis could offer insight on).
posted by samsara at 9:48 AM on August 22, 2012
posted by samsara at 9:48 AM on August 22, 2012
Response by poster: Well, Samsara was closest but I'm not surprised no one got this dead on. What was triggering her issue was something running in memory alright - her graphics pad driver. Turns out her keyboard straddled it, so she kept it under there, but something else go under there too so whenever she put any weight on her keyboard, she was pressing some button on the border of the thing and calling up something in Firefox.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 12:29 PM on September 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 12:29 PM on September 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Another idea - add widgets.yahoo.com to your hosts file and redirect it to 127.0.0.1.
posted by COD at 12:47 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]