WAY OT MSN Explorer Virus

[Anonymous-0]

Is there any way to get rid of Internet Explorer on a Computer? MSN has invaded my computer, and I cannot find any way to get rid of it . I am on AOL, and none of their spyware has helped. Every 10 seconds, MSN popups happen.,, I have to reboot at least 3 or 4 times per hour.. Bill Gates is a real scumbag, IMHO.. He is not happy to sell Windows, he then goes on to harrass folks that do not use MSN. My next computer will be a Mac...

 

[Bob]

Install Firefox, then disable IE.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I don't think BG has singled you out because he has been deposed as No.1 but more likely your computer lacks the necessary .Don't be too quick with the invectives.

Visit AVG Anti spyware 7.5 FREE EDITION. where this is a subject. also get their AVG free for virus.
My XP has a pop up blocker,don't know if it's something additional but I do have both AVG's.
and they are at the right price.Think I have Firewall also.

 

[sd pete]

IMHO firefox is way better

 

[Nancy Howell]

Absolutely install Firefox. It has a pop up blocker and will cue you with a yellow band at the top of your computer screen when pop ups are blocked that gives you the option of allowing pop ups for that site.

 

[Mark - IN.]

The best way that I know of is to delete stuff through DOS, and I'm NOT talking about the Command Prompt incorprated into Windows that took the place of the old DOS prompt. Trying to delete files or folders through Command Prompt can be a disaster. Something similar just happened to me last week when I opened an Email from a friend. I opened the Email, then AOL closed down and my computer rebooted. When it came up, I had an icon in the tool bar that said that Windows had detected my computer infected with Spyware, nnalert more info. So...like a nitwit, I clicked on it for more info, then we were off to the races. Son of a...gun. When I shutdown my PC, I got a Windows popup that said "Braviax.exe" was still shuting down. I'd never seen or heard of Braviax.exe and figured must be part of my problem. After rebooting my PC, I did a search of Braviax and found it under both Windows and System32, and the date and time stamp was about the time that my computer went down after opening the Email. I found the culprit, but couldn't delete it...only move it around inside of Windows because it glommed onto Windows. Even AVG or Norton wouldn't touch it. Hmm?!?!? Now was time to get serious, and NOT use the Command Prompt...that will ruin stuff (the wrong files) when using. I'm running Windows XP which won't allow the DOS Prompt at all, so I tossed in an old copy of Windows 98 which does at bootup. My choices were to either load Windows 98 (wrong answer), or load into DOS (right answer). Once I was in DOS, I just changed Directories until I got into System 32, then used "Delete *.* Braviax.exe " and took it right out of Bill Gates and Windows hands, Exited DOS, rebooted my PC without the Windows 98 CD right correctly into XP. Its gone, I'm ok now.

Afterwards, I googled Braxiax and found out that it aint good, and is a real pain in the rear to get rid of because no one knows or uses DOS anymore, or can really get to DOS unless have old software lying around...for that purpose.

 

[Dan-IA]

Back in the day, there was "98 lite" which may be available online. But really, you can try to disable IE, but unless you have a drop-in replacement shell, you cannot remove the IE core because it gives you your desktop, your "my computer" and all the folders, and your web browser. The integration of IE and windows was the big deal about the MS lawsuit brought by like a dozen states with the famous judge Kollar-Kotelly.
US vs. Microsoft

 

[Dan-IA]

I used to fix computers and most of my problems were spyware related. You're complaining about the infamous file-locking "feature" that is common to all flavors of Windows. If something is running, you can't delete it. Worse, if you have a XP system on NTFS, win98 can't read it, and linux sees it read-only. You can delete almost anything from a command prompt in safe mode, because only a handful of spyware was written by a genius that could make it start in safe mode. However there are some. Only thing I knew that worked in those cases are a BOOTABLE CD on it called Bart's Boot Disk (required XP SP1 setup files to build.) Then the bootable XP CD could be used to fix lots of things.

 

[Mark - IN.]

Hey Dan. Booting from a Windows 98 CD, short of loading Windows 98 works for me. Point is, DOS works great. Deleting from the Command Prompt in the Safe Mode might work, but in Normal Mode sure can be a disaster. I once deleted something in System 32 and it said worked OK, until I rebooted and found out that XP wouldn't load because something else in System 32 got deleted too, something that I didn't ask for. From now on, I toss in the Windows 98 CD in whoever's PC I'm tinkering with, load DOS and go from there.

I'm certainly no computer expert, but I'm the only one in the family who figured out how to program a VCR, so I've been delegated and picked up some stuff over time. Still haven't figured out the DVD, so...no one uses it or will until I do. Grin.

Thanks.

 

[Mark - IN.]

Absolutely. Screwing up IE will do very bad things to Windows in general. Trying to click into a window or program afterwards and Windows will come back with various popups that will say something like "Hahahaha Surely You Jest Hahahaha". Don't screw with IE. Been there, done that, never do again.

 

[Paul Sebek]

Yes, the half way, disable IE(limited) and use firefox. The full way, change operating systems and use ubuntu or pc-bsd.

 

[Andy Motteberg]

If you want to remove Internet Explorer, here is how to do it (Windows XP):

1. Click on the Start menu

2. On the right side of the menu, click "Set Program Access and Defaults"

3. On the left side of the page, click "Add/Remove Windows Components"

4. Uncheck "Internet Explorer" and click next. When the removal is finished, Internet Explorer is removed.

 

[TractormanNC]

Get rid of windows. Use any of the different flavors of Linux. Have been using Fedora Core by Red Hat for about a year. A few glitches but NOTHING like I was having with windows.

 

[buickanddeere]

One of my computers were drowned with basement flooding 3 weeks ago. Replacement is going to be a Mac.

 

[Dave Sherburne NY]

Ask the computer goddess?
KIM KOMANDO

 

[Mark - IN.]

...might it be that you somehow accidentally chose MSN to be your default page/choice of accessing the internet? MSN is part of the Windows software by default. It doesn't invade or download to your PC, its already there as a component of Windows.

Go under Settings, Control Panal, Internet Options, and see if you don't have MSN under Home Page Address up at the top. If you do, try changing it to "http://www.aol.com/" or blank. Just a thought. I haven't tried it, but under Settings, Control Panal, Administrative Tools might also find MSN and set it to Manual and then Disable it, but I don't know what that will do to your PC...perhaps and probably nothing. If you have a MSN icon on your desktop, you can also delete it which won't delete MSN from your software, but will make it harder to accidentally access in the future. I also wonder if you didn't accidentally access something online, perhaps a virus or spyware or trojan that keeps trying to launch using IE (Internet Explorer)...if that's the case, good luck because will have to do some studying like watching Task Manager to see what processes are constantly running that perhaps shouldn't be (virus, etc), or doing a file search to see what files or folders were created about the time all bad things started happening, etc. Again, I use DOS to delete the things that shouldn't be, but if you're not familiar with DOS and start deleting the wrong stuff...POW!!! Be careful deleting files and folders if you're not sure what they are...worse things can happen.

Good luck, but check what I suggested first. You just may've accidentally made MSN your default page. You've seen it online when some website asks if you want to make them your "default" page, that's where its done.

 

[Mark - IN.]

...I'd be very leary of deleting any Windows components such as MSN or IE. You may never use them, but probably do without realizing it. If you're logged into AOL for instance, and perhaps are using Norton or some other software and decide to update that or whatever software, including Windows, it/they will actually do the update through IE while you're logged on through AOL or whatever your ISP of choice is. I'd be very leary of deleting any Windows components because you may cause yourself bigger problems down the road, maybe even just around the first curve you get to.

Again, good luck.