Searchfly/Conduit ... ? Downloaded it by mistake. Can not find it to uninstall. Help, please.
Will be offline tonight but, any help in the morning would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, all.
It wants me to install Flashplayer HD - Required.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)I am downloading Malwarebytes now.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)In the process now. Found 14 so far. Removed w/ the Malwarrbytes. Will run Spybot in the AM. Had to leave for On Call.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)but where is it on the computer?
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Earth Bound Misfit
(3,553 posts)BleepingComputer Review:
Junkware Removal Tool is a security utility that searches for and removes common adware, toolbars, and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) from your computer. A common tactics among freeware publishers is to offer their products for free, but bundle them with PUPs in order to earn revenue. This tool will help you remove these types of programs.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)search engine/toolbar piece of crap. Damit. Now I remember why I hate Facebook
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)now to get rid of conduit ... I hope. *fingers crossed* thanks for the links.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Even better, configure your browser to clean History. Cache and Cookies on exit.
My Settings for FireFox:
There are couple of good addons I use for Firefox you might want to try too:
Better Privacy:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/betterprivacy/
my setup:
Self-Destructing Cookies:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/self-destructing-cookies/?src=search
my setup:
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)QUESTION: Isn't conduit still in my computer somewhere?
How do I know it is gone for good?
This is/was the link:
http://search.conduit.com/?SearchSource=10&CUI=UN21456654223141921&UM=2&ctid=CT3292715
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)and I can not find that freecause under programs so there is no way to uninstall from programs
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)which browser are you using?
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)I am not sure that I have gotten rid of it completely ... The toolbar is gone and IE looks normal instead of how it looked with conduit.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Go to Tools, Manage Ad-ons, Search Providers.
What do you see there?
Mine has Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is marked as default
If you see SearchFly there, or anything you just plain don't like, follow the instructions below:
First check which engine is default. if it's not your favourite than right-click on it and select Set As Default
You can also check 'Prevent programs from suggesting changes to my default search provider' if you like
Next Right-click on the one you want gone and click on Remove
That will remove the unwanted ad-ons
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)damit. ugh. now what?
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)I know. If I enable it then I can remove it, right?
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)the little fucker.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)after that is done, right click on SearchFly, click Remove
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Thanks for helping this luddite
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)go to Start - Control Panel - Programs and Features
check what programs are installed, look for SearchFly and Conduit. is it there?
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)close out and see if they are there now. Be back in few ...
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Oh, and it's a good idea to clear all Cookies and History in IE before rebooting.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)to install a search engine like Ask or some other one, which you have to unclick. Those are OK.
Most will offer standard and custom install. Standard will often install another search engine by default.
Custom, which most PC users will never click on because they are scared of it, will than offer you a choice of installing another search engine.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)It's not a problem for me, but I saw way too many people end installing some stupid stuff like search engine add-on, getting stiff scared because they don't know what to do and even more scared because they are told it's VIRUS!, MALWARE!, etc by arsehole "professional sites" on Internets and end up paying for something they can remove themselves in seconds.
Never friggin mind they only got it because another arsehole LEGITIMATE company installed it on their PC under Standard option in installer.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Go to EI - Tools - Manage Ad-ons- Search providers and do what you did this time.
Oh, and do clean up History and Cookies once in a while at least It's good for privacy. If you don't know how, I can explain.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)I want to swat this damn fly
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)Fire up IE. Click the blue Help icon. Go to "About Internet Explorer". That tells you your version number.
It only matters because the precise way of doing things in IE can differ from version to version.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)This article, top of page, walks you through how to change your search provider.
Yell for more help
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)TM99
(8,352 posts)you have to do these in Safe Mode from a reboot. That will remove anything that is resident in memory and will not allow anything unessential to start up.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)my hero
thanks ever so much
I owe you one ... if ever there is anything I can do for you ... holla
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)That is the one, of course, for Windows 7. They have Microsoft people to answer any and all questions, no matter how dumb you think it is. They are extremely helpful. After all, this is why you pay big bucks for Windows. You just have to be patient for an answer.
To be honest, I think DU is as good as those forums. We have some very knowledgeable and talented people here.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,470 posts)IMHO you should be granted TS clearance and pass "yankee white" with flying colors.
Your latest foray into these dangerous exploits should qualify you as an expert malware toolbar assassin. Please continue these terminations at your discretion selecting TOs (targets of opportunity) at your convenience.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)thanks for the vote of confidence
TM99
(8,352 posts)truly.
Here is a simple and easy method to reboot Windows 7 in Safe Mode.
http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/safe-mode-f8-doesnt-work/
On XP, you can use F8 at start-up.
It will look just like normal Windows and run like normal Windows, for the most part, except that you will not have internet access and many background services are stopped, actually never started as they are in a normal Windows boot up.
This way when you run Malwarebytes and Spybot, they can remove those instances that might be resident in memory. It will allow you to truly clean this infection from your system.
In many instances, it is the only way to truly kill a malware, spyware, viral infection for good.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)TM99
(8,352 posts)If yes, then no you are fine. If no, then yes, Safe Mode is warranted.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)TM99
(8,352 posts)technically it is an 'infection' of sorts.
But the question remains the same. Is it still there? If not, then you are good to go. If yes, then yes, Safe Mode is going to insure you finally get rid of it.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)It's gone from the list of search engines, as that poster already checked.
It did not reinstall itself after reboot, suggesting there is no hidden installer somewhere.
In this case it really was just a search engine add-on for IE.
TM99
(8,352 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)back up to normal speed. Thanks for all your help
TM99
(8,352 posts)I didn't really offer much as it appears others here had you well on the way to getting it fixed.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Some of them are OK, some are shit, some are spying on you like crazy, like Goggle for instance.
I use DuckDuckGo for majority of my searches right now because it's a lot better about spying on you, though nothing is perfect.
When I want to check Wiki I switch to Wiki search engine, when I want to check Amazon I switch to Amazon search engine.
Your default search engine is Bing right now.
You can set it up to Google if you want or you can have a number of them and choose which one you want.
If you'd like, I can explain to you how to set it up.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)I did not know Bing was my search engine. I don't know if I want to use Google.
Doesn't Yahoo have search engine?
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)opened up my computer ... ugh.
Should I have several search engines?
steve2470
(37,457 posts)personal preference
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Somehow that conduit overrode the Bing Default Is that what happened?
Dumb me thought I was downloading something to do with Candy Crush
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)I want to see if I can get it to look like it did before Conduit wiped out everything.
Thanks and I will get back here when things have settled down,
Really appreciate all the help, info and links from everyone.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Mind you, you will lose your special settings but it will go back to Bing and everything else will be "brand new".
If you have a ton of bookmarks, might not be a good idea. The reset feature is on the last tab of the Internet Options of IE.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Was it something like this, by any chance?
http://www.yahoo.com/
PS Sorry for late response. Am on the other side of Atlantic from you and was asleep.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)but, before it went to six tiles and those six tiles were my most visited sites. DU was one tile, youtube was one tile, IMDB was one tile,
Wiki was one tile and the last two kinda changed around depending on what surfing I did that day or so.
I am OK with going to my yahoo page and my favorites still tab down. No biggie.
I guess I am pretty easy to please and very adaptable.
I just hated that I was dumb enough to fall for that Searchfly/conduit crap. ugh.
Questions:
Am I using Bing to get to that yahoo homepage?
Is Bing any better or worse than Google?
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)I am just trying to make sure I give you the right advice/answer because it's difficult without actually seeing what you see.
Am I right to assume your Home Page was and is a Yahoo home page?
To answer my question you just need to tell me what happened when you click on the Home icon in IE.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)the first thing when I click on the IE (little 'e') icon. It goes straight to Yahoo. that is now.
Before the conduit fiasco, when I clicked on the little 'e' icon a page came up that had those six tiles on it.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)open IE, click on Tools, Internet Options, General and tell me what does it say in the text box under Home page?
Mine says: https://duckduckgo.com/
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)it says yahoo ---
http://www.yahoo.com/
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Your tiles will be back, just give it a little bit of time. If I am not mistaken, they are dynamic, meaning your Yahoo homepage tracks what you use the most and presents it too you when it decides it has enough info to do so.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Last edited Wed Sep 4, 2013, 09:57 PM - Edit history (1)
>Am I using Bing to get to that yahoo homepage?
No, you go Yahoo as first page you see for a number of different reasons. I don't know yet why, that is why I was asking you questions in my replies #88 and #90
About searching in General.
My default search Provider is DuckDuckGo.
Yesterday we set Bing as your default Search Provider.
Lets talk about actual searching.
my IE setup so I can do search in Address Bar directly, using my default Search Provider DuckDuckGo.
Here is my setup:
Yours will say Bing, instead of DuckDuckGo
Now, lets do some searching using different options.
First I will go to Yahoo page, because it's the one you use the most. Here is what I see when I open it in IE (I am not logged in):
Lets say I want to search for "little green people". I have two options.
Option 1
I will search using my default Search Provider DuckDuckGo. To do that I type "little green people" in address bar:
Notice a little window opened under the address Bar? it's showing me what Service Provider I can use. In this case its only one and it's DuckDuckGo.
If you do the same thing, you will see a little icon for Bing.
Now if I click on Enter I will see the Results page for DuckDuckGo Search Engine:
Option 2
I can also use the Search option built into the the Yahoo Page. In that case I will be using Yahoo service engine:
If I click on Search Button it will take me to search Results page for Yahoo search engine:
Both options will get me search results. What I get will be slightly different and will depend on the Search Provider.
This is where personal preference and convenience takes precedence.
Google is generaly considered as the best Search Provider because it has a lot of built in functions like search through Images, Video, Shopping, etc.
So does the Bing.
DuckDuckGo has less advertising, doesn't spy on you and offers more privacy BUT doesn't have same built-ins as Google or Bing.
Best thing to do probably is to try to search few times for the same thing on www.google.com, www.bing.com, www.duckduckgo.com (for example) and deside what you like more. once you decide you can add that particular Search Provider to your IE.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Download Process Explorer from that link.
Install it, and fire it up.
Look at all the processes. Do any look weird ? Look for the company name of who made the process. If you see no company name....be suspicious. Don't kill any process via right click menu until you do a google search on it.
This is the best way I know of, to see what is running on your computer right now. It might not pick up rootkits, but we're not worried about that right now.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)I may do this one later today. Don't have the time right now, though.