Help! My browser is going popup mad.
April 16, 2015 9:51 AM Subscribe
I just got back from a lengthy trip to Asia and I think my computer may have picked something up.
I have a new Macbook Air and I use Firefox for browsing. I am getting many many redirecting of pages clicked. Very annoying. Is there an easy fix or diagnosis? I am not really savy in configuring but I will say that my popups are disabled in the preferences.
Thank you hive
I have fixed something like this by going to Tools->Add-ons ->Extensions and then deleting programs in the list that looks suspicious. I found this example.
posted by waving at 10:08 AM on April 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by waving at 10:08 AM on April 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
I fixed my neighbor's mac with Adware Medic. It's the same program listed above, but a direct download link. I recently read about some sites bundling pop up software in shareware and open source downloads, so I'm making it a habit to go to the source.
posted by advicepig at 12:58 PM on April 16, 2015
posted by advicepig at 12:58 PM on April 16, 2015
I have had great success with the folks at spywareinfoforum.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 1:12 PM on April 16, 2015
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 1:12 PM on April 16, 2015
Does this also happen in Safari?
You didn't, by any chance, install MacKeeper? Maybe by accident?
Also, make sure your DNS settings haven't been changed.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:36 PM on April 16, 2015
You didn't, by any chance, install MacKeeper? Maybe by accident?
Also, make sure your DNS settings haven't been changed.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:36 PM on April 16, 2015
Remove MacKeeper
Run this:
http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php
posted by Mac-Expert at 2:28 PM on April 16, 2015
Run this:
http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php
posted by Mac-Expert at 2:28 PM on April 16, 2015
Go to the Apple store, get them to loan you the latest OSX CD, and NUKE IT FROM ORBIT AND REINSTALL.
posted by jeffamaphone at 4:44 PM on April 16, 2015
posted by jeffamaphone at 4:44 PM on April 16, 2015
I had a virus recently that added itself as an extension to all my browsers. None of the antivirus programs could remove it including a bunch of the ones mentioned. I could de-activate it in my browser settings but it would re-activate itself if I restarted the browser. I couldn't find its location on my computer. It wasn't installed as its own program, either. I found very little info about it online. I'm not very tech savvy but I have lots of experience in virus removal and feel like I exhausted every avenue with this one.
Now I don't know what you have, but if you find that it's persistent like mine was (it sounds similar in what it did), here's what I did:
Save your bookmarks and uninstall your browsers. Then go to your hard drive and delete the folder for the browser. This is important because if you re-install the browser, some, like Google Chrome, will pick up the saved settings off the folder it has on your harddrive and you'll find that extension is back yet again. YOu need a clean slate so to speak. So delete that folder and then reinstall your browser. The popup virus will be gone.
You can also try to system restore your computer back to right before you noticed it happening but that can be a pain if you've installed programs or saved a lot of files in different locations on your hard drive since then.
Of course trying the virus/whatever removal as everyone else mentioned is definitely step #1. This was a last resort.
By the way that virus/whatever was named something like Paylesss or something (with a bunch of s's) and it was an extension in all three browsers I was using.
(I forgot to mention I also 'removed' or deleted in addition to 'disabling' the extension and it reappeared, since I just noticed someone mentioned that as a possible solution as well. Just trying to cover all avenues here. It was very persistant.)
posted by atinna at 7:53 PM on April 16, 2015
Now I don't know what you have, but if you find that it's persistent like mine was (it sounds similar in what it did), here's what I did:
Save your bookmarks and uninstall your browsers. Then go to your hard drive and delete the folder for the browser. This is important because if you re-install the browser, some, like Google Chrome, will pick up the saved settings off the folder it has on your harddrive and you'll find that extension is back yet again. YOu need a clean slate so to speak. So delete that folder and then reinstall your browser. The popup virus will be gone.
You can also try to system restore your computer back to right before you noticed it happening but that can be a pain if you've installed programs or saved a lot of files in different locations on your hard drive since then.
Of course trying the virus/whatever removal as everyone else mentioned is definitely step #1. This was a last resort.
By the way that virus/whatever was named something like Paylesss or something (with a bunch of s's) and it was an extension in all three browsers I was using.
(I forgot to mention I also 'removed' or deleted in addition to 'disabling' the extension and it reappeared, since I just noticed someone mentioned that as a possible solution as well. Just trying to cover all avenues here. It was very persistant.)
posted by atinna at 7:53 PM on April 16, 2015
Install uBlock Origin to get rid of browser ads. Then run AdwareMedic (http://www.adwaremedic.com/) to be sure.
posted by GiveUpNed at 3:36 AM on April 17, 2015
posted by GiveUpNed at 3:36 AM on April 17, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by beagle at 10:07 AM on April 16, 2015 [2 favorites]