Adware? Toolbar question

[Guest wildpegasus]

We've probably all gotten them at one time or another. Those cursed toolbars that come from wherever and take a spot onto your computer. Usually I can get rid of them all but this one I currently have is a weird one. It only pops up at certain times -- sometimes when I'm doing a google search. It will appear out of nowhere on the bottom left hand part of my computer screen. It just happened to appear a few minutes ago but I have no idea on how to bring it back. Not that I want to but it irritates me that it's there and I can't even control it. Of course I want to get rid of it so any help is appreciated it.

 

I have spybot, adaware, an A2 malware searcher, AVG Free antivirus and an expired Norton Antivirus program for protection. Before I thought it was just adware and I assumed I had always gotten rid of it until later when it would pop up again. The reason I assumed I had gotten rid of it after using these programs was because it wouldn't pop for awhile after running the programs. So I just assumed was picking up the same adware from my usual run of sites on the web.

 

Now I suspect it's always here. I am under suspicion it's something called adware.hotbar or something like that. Might not be that either though.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Does it happen only on IE?

 

Try Microsoft's Spyware thing, then... it's actually pretty good. Don't know if it will help that problem, but I suggest using it anyway.

 

Also, you can shut off all 3rd party toolbars on IE via Tools > Internet Options > Advanced, and in Browsing you can click off Enable 3rd party toolbars, or something like that.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Does it happen only on IE?

 

Try Microsoft's Spyware thing, then... it's actually pretty good. Don't know if it will help that problem, but I suggest using it anyway.

 

Also, you can shut off all 3rd party toolbars on IE via Tools > Internet Options > Advanced, and in Browsing you can click off Enable 3rd party toolbars, or something like that.

 

I don't know if it happen on IE. I mostly just use Firefox now and only go into IE when I'm searching for stuff since I'm more familiar with the setup there.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Once again it is back.

 

 

It is a weird popup bar. It appears when I press the apostrephe (forgive the spelling) button so as you can see I am now like Kain from Kung Fu The Legend Continues in that I can not do contractions.

 

It dissapears whenever I press a different button outside of the bar but appears when I press the now evil button.

 

Help!!

[Guest wildpegasus]

Man, this is weird. I just tried to take a snapshot of the toolbar so everyone could see but that caused it to dissapear and now it won't come back again. But I know it's hiding in there somewhere. Arrrrgggh.

[AnonymousBroccoli 0]

HijackThis might be able to identify the problem. Download from here. You don't need to install it, but you should place the EXE in its own permanent folder somewhere.

 

Run the program, and "Do a system scan and save a logfile". Then go to http://www.hijackthis.de/. Either copy & paste the log file's contents, or choose the log's file name (it'll be in the same folder as the EXE). "Show the visitors ratings" isn't necessary, but you can use it if you want. Then click "Analyze".

 

The site will analyze the log, which compiled any programs currently running, and various other parts of your system, like stuff set to occur at startup, your home page, and so on.

 

Go down the list, and see if the site identifies anything as "Nasty" or "Unknown".

 

I've been told it's a bad idea to use the HijackThis program to fix any problems, as it, or the site, may produce false positive results. (An HTML start page I made myself was identified as harmful, for example.) So if it finds anything, you might be better off Googling the name of the problem to see if you can find any removal solutions.

[Guest wildpegasus]

I was thinking about that myself but I was worried about the risks. Thanks for the response.