01tibby

so anyway, the computer is working great for a good 4 montsh, no problems at all. my brother gets on and does something, and now all these changes happened that make browsing retarded.

the microsoft IE "information bar" pops up every time i visit a site, even if i have allowed blocked content once already. it says something about active content.

i cant log in to sites that require me to be redirected. ebay, gmail, aol, my webct account. none of them work. my pop3 account on rdtiburon does still work though, but a "connect to...." window comes up for that one, so im guessing its different.

my brother said that all he did was run ad-aware. dont know if hes lying or what. ive changed almost all the interenet properties i can find, set everything back to default, and it still does it. ive even tried the system restore thing for windows xp, but for some reason that wasnt able to work the past 4 times ive tried it, with a diff. date each time. is this a virus?

i really just want to get rid of that damn information bar, and to be able to log into gmail and stuff. when i try to log into ebay, it says "If you are seeing this page, your browser settings prevent you from automatically redirecting to a new URL.".

please, any help is appreciated? this is driving me ****ing crazy.

Casper

Sounds like you downloaded the newest service pack for windows XP. The 'feature' I think you are referring to is the new integrated popup blocker for internet explorer wink1.gif. Well, you can either try seeing if there is a setting under tools, internet options... or when that bar shows up I beleive you can right click on it and select an option like always allow redirection (or popup windows etc) from this domain / site.

I am not on an XP machine right now, so I can not give you too much info :. I hope this helps (if it is what I explained, dont wory, its not a virus... just microsoft throwing another wrench in the system). :roll:

01tibby

i firgured thats what it was. any way i can uninstall the service pack?

Dweet

yeah you can do it in add/remove programs.. i took it off of my laptop.. SP2 sucks

Casper

If I remember correctally, service packs are installed/located in add/remove programs. Generally, service packs are more good then bad :, so I would suggest trying to modify the popup blocker via internet options or that dang V thing (try checkin the start menu / all programs) that is basically an all in one system to protect your computer. When I get home (If I dont pass out right away) I will try to find out what the all in one thingie is really called.

Try spending a day or 2 trying to resolve this before removing the service pack... you will be removing alot of security fixes too if you do it that way.

buffyfan

You should be able to click on tools, popup blocker, turn off popup blocker.

tibwrcsbj

I've got Xp w/ SP2 and the pop-up blocker hasn't stopped me from logging into paypal or gmail, or my SMTP account at comcast. you can simply turn it off, though.

I will also check for you when I get home. Im on an XP (w/SP2) PRO machine at work and don't have the pop up blocker. I'm probably going to switch to Pro at home soon though. I think I'll have to to use remote desktop.

In the Control Panel go to add/remove programs, and hit add/remove components, Im pretty sure thats where you find the pop-up blocker.

supercow

ok,
#1 it's not the popup blocker.
#2 leave sp2
#3 go to tools > internet options > security and reset it to default

#4 ask your brother what all he installed, and uninstall them, if he installed ad-aware pro it can be a pain, has it's own built in blocker. just uninstall it and install the regular one since your having problems.

#5 if the cause of all of this was that your having spyware problems get back to me, I can suggest a few programs that collectively will clean... about 99% of the machines out there. now if you've got the xxx porn girl.....arg that ones is a real pain,

BillyDee01Tib

listen to super cow...and ad aware is awesome so i doubt it messed anything up...

01tibby

already have reset the securities back to default. didnt work.

i uninstalled the service pack earlier today, and it got rid of that information bar, but didnt fix the logging in problem.