Gaming Redirecting When Clicking Links AND pop-ups from time to time

[AceOfAces]

It's starting to get annoying.

Usually whenever I click a link, it redirects me to some random page. For example, I went to google, and when I clicked a link, it redirected me to some random site.
Also, sometimes, pop ups just... well... pop up alot. Like here's a common one, "Win 500$ from a Casino" or something of that nature.
Any tips?

BTW
I have
-I have Windows
-Internet Explorer
-Pop up blocker is on
-I have McAfee Antivirus
-No clue what to do.

 

[MarkDarkness]

I will diagnose you problem in half a second. Okay. Did it.

USE A REAL BROWSER. Any of them. Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera. Just pick one.

 

[macgeek417]

use FireFox.

IE is the WORST browser. Ever.

IE gets ~30% on the Acid3 test. The DSi Web Browser gets 59%.

My DSi is more standards complient than Internet Exploder.

Firefox gets 97%

 

[mrfatso]

use FireFox.

IE is the WORST browser. Ever.

IE gets ~30% on the Acid3 test. The DSi Web Browser gets 59%.

My DSi is more standards complient than Internet Exploder.

Firefox gets 97%

wow, IE even lost to the DSi web browser, now that's just sad. Also, get firefox and while u are at it, get adblock plus as your addon.

 

[AceOfAces]

Thanks guys.

 

[Elritha]

Sounds like you might have spyware or malware infecting your system. I'd download spybot search and destroy and do a scan.

 

[macgeek417]

My mistake, I got IE's score wrong. One second...

 

[macgeek417]

^^ IE8's Default settings. In "Compatibility View" it gets 6/100.

^^ FireFox.

^^ Opera

^^ Safari

Which one does NOT belong?

See http://acid3.acidtests.org/reference.html

I recommend FireFox

 

[Jakob95]

Same thing happened to my old computer. It is definitely a Spyware/Virus. I had to format to remove the virus...

 

[MarkDarkness]

Same thing happened to my old computer. It is definitely a Spyware/Virus. I had to format to remove the virus...

There is always a way other than formatting. It's just the quickest way, but it heavily depends you having a reliable backup - which is not always the case.

 

[Javier78]

After you fix the problem, download Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free, efficient, and doesn't slow down your machine like other antivirus programs.

 

[juggernaut911]

I use Chrome. It's great! Got 100 on that "test", awesome, now getting extensions!

 

[omgdaniel]

I use Chrome. It's great! Got 100 on that "test", awesome, now getting extensions!

Well technically Chrome does not make a 100. If you check the top right, there's an 'X' in a pink box. Compare it to the reference. That is of course you're using the release, not the developer's release.

 

[moose3]

You have malware/spyware. Go here and follow the instructions. That Major Geeks page has a great how to.

 

[Hadrian]

I had this problem two weeks back, many programs didn't kill it (first in years) but amazingly the Microsoft Defender, which in the past I've found to be next to useless actually got rid of it.

 

[Cyan]

I got the same few weeks back too (and in Firefox !), after installing a hijacked software installer (the software was ok, but the malware wad hidden at the end of the software, when closing the installation, it installed a .dll on windows/system32 folder, and tried to access a webpage that NOD32 detected as a virus.

first, check your task manager, see if you see a program named d.exe, or e.exe, or f.exe etc (located in windows (sub)folder)
If there are this names, it's the same as mine. kill them all if you have more than one.
Then check your autoruns in regedit, you might see notepad.dll (that's the malware)

don't delete it yet, use spybot first, it will detect it and delete the .exe from the folders and should also delete it from the regedit entry and dll. If not, manually delete the line on your regedit before rebooting your computer.


I recommend you to use sysinternals tools : autoruns and process explorer.
You could find it on http://sysinternals.com navigating within links with your keyboard. (tab, arrow and enter, or maybe the mouse is working after killing f.exe, I don't remember trying it

)
For autoruns, do a google search, as sysinternals have bad links to it >.> (ahh, microsoft !) Oh, they corrected their links !

- Autoruns let you activate or deactivate autoruns software, or delete them definitely.
- Process explorer is like task manager, but in better.

The regedit string should be located here :
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurentVersion/Run
or (less likely)
HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run

to run regedit :
start button/run... and type regedit then ok

 

[playallday]

You have adware/spyware. Easiest fix is to reformat.

 

[Cyan]

You have adware/spyware. Easiest fix is to reformat.

even easier, throw it by your window and buy a new computer ! you don't even have to format

if something came, it can go back the same way (with more or less difficulty)
just find what's going on from starting the computer to what the problem is (you can track all the behavior of all the process/read/write/registry/handles/dll/etc. with process monitor/file monitor/reg monitor)

 

[playallday]

You have adware/spyware. Easiest fix is to reformat.

even easier, throw it by your window and buy a new computer ! you don't even have to format

if something came, it can go back the same way (with more or less difficulty)
just find what's going on from starting the computer to what the problem is (you can track all the behavior of all the process/read/write/registry/handles/dll/etc. with process monitor/file monitor/reg monitor)

Most of the time you'll never find out where you got your virus from.

If this was say, a driver issue then I'd agree with you.