I've been having some words on my browser appear the color orange with two lines under them. It just started a few day's ago after downloading a free trial program. Also my search engine is different, it used to be google now it's something I don't recognize. The words in orange can be clicked on with my mouse but I'm afraid it may be a virus. Any suggestions?
It just happened with my last post the words "downloading" and "free trial" are orange with double lines under them...
Yes, change the search engine. Search in google how to do it, "how to change Firefox/Chrome/Safari/Whatever default search engine". With some luck, it is that search engine which gives you the two orange lines. Also, you might have a new tool bar from that program.
I'd hit: Start, select Control Panel, then Program and features. Sort the list by Installed On date and see what was recently installed. If you see anything that doesn't look familiar or includes the words tool bar...right click and uninstall.
another option is to restore to a previous restore point. Start, control panel, Backup and Restore. If a back up is available, select one that is before the odd behaviour and run that.
The trial program has installed an add on into your browser which embeds text links into the web pages you visit. Find the add on, delete it.
Yep, as the others have said, you have likely installed some parasite software with a recent program. You have to start doing manual/customized installs of everything rather than standard, so you can uncheck the add on software. Even Java now is coming with McAfee which screws with my current software. A royal pain in the backside.
Got a bad virus called "startsweetpackcom" I left the dot out because you don't want anything to do with this bug, it hijacked my browsers and embedded itself I couldn't get rid of it, so I took my PC to a repair shop. I'm so technologically challenged I didn't know what else to do, I guess I'd better get my software from a box.
Don't sweat it, it's unfortunately very easy to do these days. As mentioned above, always do the custom install and see what is going to be put in and what is optional to excluded. Sometimes, there really is nothing you can do or should have done differently. Keep good backups of your data and wipe and reload as needed to restore your system back to health.
