startup problem

[Jo-Anne]

Today, on starting my WinXP netbook, I received an error message having to
do with Windows Explorer, had no internet connection, and had in my taskbar
a Google search icon. I did not install any new programs yesterday, and I
did not install the Google Toolbar ever. I use the netbook these days only
for listening to internet radio, and I hadn't added any stations or made any
changes.

My WinXP laptop, which is on the same home network, started and is running
properly.

I shut down the netbook (and got a message about having to end ConfigFree
first), restarted it, and the same thing happened. I tried to click on
System Restore, but it wouldn't respond. I tried shutting down the computer
again, but it wouldn't respond. I manually turned it off.

Then I restarted in Safe Mode and did a System Restore to yesterday evening.
Everything seems to be working again, but I downloaded updates for
Malwarebytes AntiMalware and ran it--and it found no malware. I also updated
and am running SuperAntiSpyware. Avira AntiVir (which I keep up-to-date
daily) is next for scanning.

I'm suspicious that this might be a Google issue. Yesterday, Google changed
its search page to show a bunch of options in a black section on the left,
which often leaves the cursor not in the search box. I did not, however, use
Google on the netbook yesterday.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any ideas of what happened and
what I should do next?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Don Varnau]

Hi,
FWIW, I had the same Google Search button appear on IE8 (Vista) a few days
ago.
I disabled it and it hasn't returned.
I don't know why it appeared but saw no evidence that it was malware
related.

Don
- - - - -

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you, Don! The thing re-appeared today, and with it the Microsoft
notice titled Data Execution Prevention. It appears that Google's effort to
install this quick search program makes Microsoft think it's malware; and I
have no internet connection until I click out of the notice.

Today, after clicking out of the notice, I went to Add/Remove Programs and
discovered that I had both the Google Toolbar and Google Quick Search (or
Launch--can't remember)--the latter installed today. I think another program
had installed the toolbar ages ago and I had simply disabled it. I
uninstalled the toolbar--and when I went to uninstall the quick search
program, I was told it was already uninstalled. Eventually, it disappeared
from Add/Remove Programs.

I hope this is the end of the problem. I am becoming very upset with Google.
I didn't ask for the Quick Search program, and I didn't install any programs
recently on that computer.

Jo-Anne

 

[Motor T]

Thank you, Don! The thing re-appeared today, and with it the Microsoft
notice titled Data Execution Prevention. It appears that Google's effort to
install this quick search program makes Microsoft think it's malware; and I
have no internet connection until I click out of the notice.

Today, after clicking out of the notice, I went to Add/Remove Programs and
discovered that I had both the Google Toolbar and Google Quick Search (or
Launch--can't remember)--the latter installed today. I think another program
had installed the toolbar ages ago and I had simply disabled it. I
uninstalled the toolbar--and when I went to uninstall the quick search
program, I was told it was already uninstalled. Eventually, it disappeared
from Add/Remove Programs.

I hope this is the end of the problem. I am becoming very upset with Google.
I didn't ask for the Quick Search program, and I didn't install any programs
recently on that computer.

If you just want searching capability have a look at this
non-invasive option: > http://scroogle.org/

 

[Jeff Strickland]

Thank you, Don! The thing re-appeared today, and with it the Microsoft
notice titled Data Execution Prevention. It appears that Google's effort
to install this quick search program makes Microsoft think it's malware;
and I have no internet connection until I click out of the notice.

Today, after clicking out of the notice, I went to Add/Remove Programs and
discovered that I had both the Google Toolbar and Google Quick Search (or
Launch--can't remember)--the latter installed today. I think another
program had installed the toolbar ages ago and I had simply disabled it. I
uninstalled the toolbar--and when I went to uninstall the quick search
program, I was told it was already uninstalled. Eventually, it disappeared
from Add/Remove Programs.

I hope this is the end of the problem. I am becoming very upset with
Google. I didn't ask for the Quick Search program, and I didn't install
any programs recently on that computer.

Jo-Anne

It sounds like you might have selected some manner of new application, and
when that app was installing, it gave you options to ACCEPT or DECLINE
various things. They construct these selections to _look_ like the Software
License Agreement elections where you agree or disagree, and if disagree
then the installation halts. ACCEPT or DECLINE is a different convention
than AGREE or DISAGREE, and you have to look to see what you are ACCEPTing,
and almost always have to DECLINE the offer. You can be faced with ACCEPT or
DECLINE when you update your iTunes, for example. So, you might not have
actually installed some manner of new application, you might have merely
updated one that you already had. You could have done this an hour ago, or
several days ago, and now you are getting a headache from the past action.

My guess is that you clicked ACCEPT for an Add-on that is now beating you
up. You need to disable the add-on, and you may need to visit Add or Remove
Programs in the Control Panel to delete it altogether. When in Add or Remove
Programs, look specifically for Google entries, and delete as many of them
as you want.

 

[Jo-Anne]

On 12/3/2011 11:22 AM, Jo-Anne wrote:

If you just want searching capability have a look at this non-invasive
option: > http://scroogle.org/

Thank you, Motor T! I've put Scroogle on my Favorites Bar and will try it
instead of Google.

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

It sounds like you might have selected some manner of new application, and
when that app was installing, it gave you options to ACCEPT or DECLINE
various things. They construct these selections to _look_ like the
Software License Agreement elections where you agree or disagree, and if
disagree then the installation halts. ACCEPT or DECLINE is a different
convention than AGREE or DISAGREE, and you have to look to see what you
are ACCEPTing, and almost always have to DECLINE the offer. You can be
faced with ACCEPT or DECLINE when you update your iTunes, for example. So,
you might not have actually installed some manner of new application, you
might have merely updated one that you already had. You could have done
this an hour ago, or several days ago, and now you are getting a headache
from the past action.

My guess is that you clicked ACCEPT for an Add-on that is now beating you
up. You need to disable the add-on, and you may need to visit Add or
Remove Programs in the Control Panel to delete it altogether. When in Add
or Remove Programs, look specifically for Google entries, and delete as
many of them as you want.

Thank you, Jeff! As I think back, I believe the Google Toolbar came
pre-installed on my netbook and I never did anything other than disable it.
The Quick Search add-on is something I most definitely did not install. In
any case, it looks like now that I have deleted the Google Toolbar from my
computer, it has taken Quick Search with it. Today the computer started
properly and showed no Google icon in the taskbar.

For now, I'm also giving up on Google as a search engine, at least directly,
by using Scroogle, which was suggested by Motor T.

Jo-Anne

 

[Jeff Strickland]

Thank you, Jeff! As I think back, I believe the Google Toolbar came
pre-installed on my netbook and I never did anything other than disable
it. The Quick Search add-on is something I most definitely did not
install. In any case, it looks like now that I have deleted the Google
Toolbar from my computer, it has taken Quick Search with it. Today the
computer started properly and showed no Google icon in the taskbar.

For now, I'm also giving up on Google as a search engine, at least
directly, by using Scroogle, which was suggested by Motor T.

Jo-Anne

IF IT IS THERE YOU INSTALLED IT, you may not have INTENDED to install it,
but it did not install all by itself.

There are any number ot things that you can do where you are asked if this
or that should happen, and they rely on you clicking OK or Accept without
actually reading the box that the button is in. You need to be very carefull
with this BECAUSE they sometimes ask if you want a free scan of your
machine, and it you accept the offer, you actually load a program that will
say, "We found 389 problems with your machine, do you want them fixed?" Of
course you want them fixed, but they want $69.95 to fix them and if you
don't give them the money, they pop up every three minutes to remind you
that there are 389 problems, but the most significant problem is the program
that insists there are 389 problems, and for $69.95 they will go away. Send
me $49.95, and I will tell you how to never spend $69.95 to fix stuff that
was not broken before they asked for $69.95. Crap! I just gave away $49.95
in goods and services.

Personally, I find that Yahoo Search finds everything I ask it to find. I
simply start entering the search string, and after a few characters, Yahoo
has a suggestion or two or thousand.

 

[Jo-Anne]

IF IT IS THERE YOU INSTALLED IT, you may not have INTENDED to install it,
but it did not install all by itself.

There are any number ot things that you can do where you are asked if this
or that should happen, and they rely on you clicking OK or Accept without
actually reading the box that the button is in. You need to be very
carefull with this BECAUSE they sometimes ask if you want a free scan of
your machine, and it you accept the offer, you actually load a program
that will say, "We found 389 problems with your machine, do you want them
fixed?" Of course you want them fixed, but they want $69.95 to fix them
and if you don't give them the money, they pop up every three minutes to
remind you that there are 389 problems, but the most significant problem
is the program that insists there are 389 problems, and for $69.95 they
will go away. Send me $49.95, and I will tell you how to never spend
$69.95 to fix stuff that was not broken before they asked for $69.95.
Crap! I just gave away $49.95 in goods and services.

Personally, I find that Yahoo Search finds everything I ask it to find. I
simply start entering the search string, and after a few characters, Yahoo
has a suggestion or two or thousand.

Google has a habit of changing things on its own. I definitely did not
install Google Search in my taskbar. It likely appeared through some update
in the Google Toolbar that I did not ask for. See the post by Don Varnau in
this thread. He too got the Google Search icon a few days ago without doing
anything to acquire it. It appeared right after Google changed its search
page dramatically.

The netbook on which the Google Search icon appeared is used right now only
for listening to internet radio. Nothing was installed on it for at least a
month, not even updates of current programs. I don't load programs in
general unless I know a lot about them, and I always do custom installs so I
can avoid add-ons that I don't want.

I'm not fond of Yahoo Search. It is on my ISP's (Frontier's) homepage, and
I've tried it. It's not as intuitive as Google for searching. The nice thing
about Scroogle is that it uses Google but without all the garbage and the
tracking of Google.

Jo-Anne

 

[James D Andrews]

Jo-Anne was thinking very hard and all he could come up with was:

Google has a habit of changing things on its own. I definitely did not
install Google Search in my taskbar. It likely appeared through some update
in the Google Toolbar that I did not ask for. See the post by Don Varnau in
this thread. He too got the Google Search icon a few days ago without doing
anything to acquire it. It appeared right after Google changed its search
page dramatically.

The netbook on which the Google Search icon appeared is used right now only
for listening to internet radio. Nothing was installed on it for at least a
month, not even updates of current programs. I don't load programs in general
unless I know a lot about them, and I always do custom installs so I can
avoid add-ons that I don't want.

I'm not fond of Yahoo Search. It is on my ISP's (Frontier's) homepage, and
I've tried it. It's not as intuitive as Google for searching. The nice thing
about Scroogle is that it uses Google but without all the garbage and the
tracking of Google.

Jo-Anne

Jo-Anne,

Do you have any other Google products installed such as Google Earth or
Google Sketch-up?

Google installs an automatic updater that operates independently, and
it's usually hidden. It will still install updates to software you may
have completely removed before and it will do so without asking for any
permissions, option selections, or even notification.

Google is, for the most part, malware itself.

--
-There are some who call me...
Jim


It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road,
and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be
swept off to.
-Samwise Gamgee quoting Bilbo Baggins, edited

 

[Jo-Anne]

Jo-Anne was thinking very hard and all he could come up with was:

Jo-Anne,

Do you have any other Google products installed such as Google Earth or
Google Sketch-up?

Google installs an automatic updater that operates independently, and it's
usually hidden. It will still install updates to software you may have
completely removed before and it will do so without asking for any
permissions, option selections, or even notification.

Google is, for the most part, malware itself.

--
-There are some who call me...
Jim


It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road,
and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be
swept off to.
-Samwise Gamgee quoting Bilbo Baggins, edited

Thank you, Jim! What I currently have on that computer is Google Reader--no
Google Earth or anything else. Once I removed the Google Toolbar (which had
been disabled but not removed before), the Google Quick Launch icon
disappeared and hasn't returned. So it appears to have been associated with
the Toolbar.

I'm looking into finding a new aggregator, so I can get rid of Google Reader
too. Someone recommended Feedreader, and I'll give that a try. I'm getting
really fed up with Google. Even the search engine, which I've always loved,
has become a pain to use.

Jo-Anne