The file I wanted was in a weird format. TZ. I searched the web and found a compressed file extraction utility that would deal with it. Being in a rush, I failed to read the dialog box before I clicked the Install button. Hello, unwanted crap!
\n
\nNow I’m not sure whether the files installed were really Spyware or malware. I run an anti-virus utility, and nothing came up with the bastard programs were installed. But suddenly, upon opening my web browser, I found a new home page and a new search engine. Needless to say, I was displeased.<\/p>\n
Perhaps this type of unwanted program piggybacking has happened to you. I might happen to you in the future. It will probably happen to me again in the future. If you’re too quick on that click, you might find an option dwelling on the screen that means you unwittingly agree to install wicked software you don’t want. The issue at that point is how to get rid of it.<\/p>\n
Here’s what I did:<\/p>\n
First, having Chrome as my PC web browser, I was alerted to the presence of a new Home page installation and new browser extensions installed. That was awesome! It saved me from having to peel out the intruder myself. So I clicked on the Settings command, a prompt appeared informing me of the intrusion. I clicked the Reset Chrome button, and the invader was removed.<\/p>\n
Second, I had to stop the programs — hopefully.<\/p>\n
I clicked on the nasty program’s wee icon in the notification area. I chose the Exit command. Then I went to the Task Manager and killed the program’s tasks. But, as expected, they kept returning. Chrome was having a fit that the new home page and toolbars were being reinstalled. I finally just closed the Chrome window.<\/p>\n
Third, I uninstalled the software. Removing software is most effective when you stop it (Step 2) before uninstalling. The sneaky program was listed in the Control Panel’s Programs window, so I clicked on each offending item and uninstalled it. That’s not enough, however, because some of the nastier programs continue to re-install themselves through various secret means.<\/p>\n
After uninstalling, I restarted the PC. (This is the Fourth step.) Upon rebooting, I didn’t see any sign of the program. Chrome started up just fine, no strange home page and no extensions. And the Task Manager didn’t show the offending process.<\/p>\n
Hopefully the damn thing is gone, out of the computer. I consider myself lucky; the program was merely unwanted, not invasive.<\/p>\n
If you can’t pull software from your computer, then you need to use anti-virus and anti-spyware software to remove it. Better than that is just to do what I didn’t: Pay attention whenever you install anything downloaded from the Internet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Don’t pay attention, and it can happen to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15,17],"class_list":["post-7225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main","tag-pc","tag-troubleshooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7237,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7225\/revisions\/7237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}