Banning IE

[Rasori]

Is there any type of program, or any way to make a program, that will not allow IE to start opening while it's running? I have two pop-up blockers, which work well, but they're both after-the-fact. The pop-ups start to come, so while I'm playing a game, it minimizes to find a lack of a pop-up.

 

My spyware program (Aluria--subscription based) works at finding spyware, but apparently it can't find the installers because there's generally a surge of new pop-ups after running it.

 

Aside from removing IE completely (which I can't do because there are sites I go to that only work properly on IE and because I shouldn't mess with the files included with Windows) I haven't come up with anyway to make sure that IE popups can't even start to open. Is there anything that can act preemptively rather than after-the-fact?

[radiohead]

Get Firefox. It won't do that and it is much safer and more reliable than IE

[Rasori]

I already have Firefox. That's why I don't have to rely on IE and can ban IE when I'm not using it. But I still get the IE spyware popups.

[Dave]

Run something like AdAware or Spybot: Search & Destroy. They're a couple of pretty good apps for removing adware and annoying popups.

[Rasori]

AdAware and Spybot S&D are decent, yes, but the Aluria program that I use covers much more--and whenever I used to use either AdAware or Spybot, I still got the same effect (with a sudden surge of new popups after going through it all).

[Rasori]

What is in the internet explorer folders that is so computer-critical? I've read warnings never to mess with IE and its files, but if I were to rename either the folder or the file, wouldn't that mess up the spy/ad/malware? I assume they run based on simple scripts that tell them to open IE and head "here." I know they don't just connect to the site, because then they would be going through Firefox (my default browser).

 

What will I screw up if I were to rename iexplore.exe or the Program Files/Internet Explorer folder?

[Pangloss]

That's what I was going to suggest, renaming iexplore.exe. It should be fine except that any program that uses it will be kaput. It's worth a shot.

[5614]

And if something majori did fail you could hopefully boot up in safe mode and rename it back to what it should be... it's risk, your choice, if you do though, tell us what happens!

[Rasori]

I'm going to try it when I get home from school today.

If I don't respond before tomorrow, assume the worst

[Douglas]

What will I screw up if I were to rename iexplore.exe or the Program Files/Internet Explorer folder?

I was having some problems with "Norton" (or something), I tried renaming the file, and it wouldn't let me.

 

Aside from that, I stopped 90% of all pop-ups by disabling windows messenger, which I never use.

[5614]

oh, Rasori, you may run into windows file protection as I did when I was inserting my moded winXP kernel... anyway, it's actually quite easy to get around, just boot up in safe mode and the "window file protection" system disappears!

[Rasori]

Actually, no, it worked out fine.

I got a message the first time saying it was running in "Compatibility Mode." Some features are disabled (most notably, the password storage thingy) but it still runs perfectly fine, so I have no problems with that.

Besides, I use Firefox for almost all my web browsing.

 

I don't know if it's entirely effective yet, but generally the pop-ups don't come until I start playing games (Murphy's Law, or just the fact that I play games pretty soon after logging on). If I make it through a night with no intruding pop-ups, I'll call it essentially a successful experiment. Essentially because renaming iexplore.exe did disable a feature or two.

 

As a side note--if someone wants to do the same thing I did, I suggest going through "C:\Documents and Settings\" to edit all desktop and start menu shortcuts (right click, Properties, and edit what you edited). You can save a bit of hassle in the future if you're on a shared computer.

[Rasori]

Update: Just got a pop-up now.

 

Went back to the folder and, what do you know, there's now the renamed Internet Explorer (iexplorer.exe) and the regular name (iexplore.exe).

 

I'm gonna try to boot in safe mode and rename the folder itself... I won't be surprised if the same thing happens.

[Rasori]

Indeed, the folder's been successfully renamed. Funny thing, though, is that there's now a folder called "internet explorer" with nothing in it, aside from another empty folder called "connection wizard." Something tells me that some sort of spyware was trying to read my connection information.

 

Otherwise, nothing "regular" has popped up (excuse the pun) where it used to be.

 

Also, a plus to this method is that the password information is still stored and IE runs with all features enabled.

[5614]

One sec, I missed something.... you renamed the folder, and there's nothing inside it except for an empty folder.... so where did IE (which as you said still runs) all go to???

 

I think if you are getting loadsa popups even when you aren't using IE you do have spyware yes!

[Rasori]

No, there's a NEW folder called that.

The old folder has been renamed "ThisThingSucks."

 

And yes, I know I have spy/adware. I just didn't know anything was shooting for my connection information (I assume that spyware, attempting to access my files, has created new folders where the old ones are. As far as searching goes, it's not case-sensitive, so that's why the folder names aren't capitalized.)

[Dave]

Hmm. That sounds particularly nasty.

 

Maybe as an added bonus, try running a virus scan (full drive)? Or indeed, scan everything to death with a big pitchfork after you've updated everything to the latest version. Something should come up.

[Silencer]

Microsoft AntiSpyware allows you to remove Browser Helper Objects, installed ActiveX, and lots of other tasty treats.

[5614]

umm, one sec... connection wizard is a standard part of IE... it's not spyware.

 

When you renamed the IE folder ThisThingSucks windows is seemingly trying to fix IE, and by doing that it has recreated the folder Internet explorer and its critical sub-folder Connection wizard

 

It's not certain proof of spyware! Although the popups are!

[Rasori]

5614, I'd agree with you, IF the folder had been "Internet Explorer." (Windows is always grammatically correct for folder names). Instead, it was "internet explorer" and "connection wizard" that were created--suggesting that a spyware with a lazy programmer was trying to access that folder. Like I said, a search isn't case-sensitive--if the spyware was programmed to look at the "c:\program files\internet explorer\connection wizard\" folder, or a specific item inside it, it would find the folder despite the fact that it's actually "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Connection Wizard\." Because it was programmed to look at that folder, I'm under the impression that it searched these folders hoping to find the information it wanted, just to find them empty (but now created, since it DID find them).