boxst

Hello

As I wander aimlessly through the internet, I sometimes get programs auto-installing themselves. lop.com was one example. How do they do that!?

Or more to the point, how do I stop them?

Steve.

ozzy

They probably install via some ASP or other embedded program in the webpage. You either happen across some website or get redirected to some fecking ad and before you know it something new is on your PC.

There should be some laws against this sort of thing. After all, they installed something on your PC without your consent.

You can either install some ad-blocking software or use something like Ad Aware to regularly check and remove these offending programs.

I don't think there's any one product that'll elliminate this entirely, so keep checking your PC for anything that shouldn't be there.

Stefan

chiark

You should *always* have to click on something to install anything new.

Suggest you check your internet security settings?

boxst

Hello

Thank you for the replies.

I have just looked at my Internet setting and everything was set to "enable". So I have changed the Add to Desktop and the Active X controls to prompt. Hopefully that will do the trick.

Steve.

chiark

Begs the question of what set it to that, because the standard is quite prohibitive. Not wishing to stir paranoia, but I'd run a virus checker full scan just to be safe and know there's nothing playing with your system...

druddle

I had that lop **** install itself on my PC a while ago. I uninstalled everything and clenaed the entire registry out but it still came back. Full virus check was clean but i did a full low level "zeros" format of the hard disk and reinstalled XP to get rid.

Dave

chiark

So, prey tell, what is on lop.com?

Hanslow

It's a bugger to get rid of! It's like a portal site.

It stuffs something in your \windows\application data\ folder for internet explorer. There's a program in there that is run either when you start up windows or when you run up explorer. I think that's the main thing to be got rid of. Took me a good half hour to find the bl00dy thing though [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

As to where I got it....probably when I was looking for a certain bit of cheap software [zips up flame retarding suit and sits back]

AndiThompson

lop.com is a Live Online Portal, it's a kinda search engine/links thing. It installed on my PC as the default search engine for IE after visiting some MP3 sites.