How to turn off Hotwords in IE?

[Grahammer]

I don't know how and a I don't know when, but IE has started randomly
choosing words to underline and offer as a hyperlink. Checking the source of
the page shows that these words are NOT meant to be linked anyplace.

Why is this happening?

How did it get installed?

What is Microsofts "official" term for this junk?

....and most importantly... How do I get rid of this crap!!!!!!!

 

[Jim Macklin]

You probably have some adware or spyware/Trojan. Get SpyBot
Search & Destroy from
www.security.kolla.de and AdAware from
www.lavasoftusa.com Download the free programs and install
them, run their updates, and scan your computer.

Also run a full system virus scan and turn your firewall on.


| I don't know how and a I don't know when, but IE has
started randomly
| choosing words to underline and offer as a hyperlink.
Checking the source of
| the page shows that these words are NOT meant to be linked
anyplace.
|
| Why is this happening?
|
| How did it get installed?
|
| What is Microsofts "official" term for this junk?
|
| ...and most importantly... How do I get rid of this
crap!!!!!!!
|
|

 

[Phrederick]

I have a firewall (router actually), latest virus scanner as well. Haven't
run AdAware recently, but I doubt that it's spyware doing this. I do have
third party extensions disabled in IE.

I do know that this was a feature that Microsoft wanted to add into IE, but
it was really rejected by users as invasive...

.... I'll post what I find.

 

[Grahammer]

It appears to be a registry key called "Alexa" that Microsoft includes in
some of their updates.

Unfortunately I didn't think to grab the key's address.

AdAware found and removed it.

http://www.safersite.com/PestInfo/a/alexa.asp

 

[Grahammer]

....and WHY does OE insist on occasionally replying using the wrong account
in OE?

All the Microsoft groups are in my Grahammer account, yet OE used my
Phrederick account for the reply before.