Need Help with Spybot S&D Popups

Hello. I am new here. A few days ago I installed Avast and I must say it works very well. My computer is running much faster now when I’m online (the speed which webpages download). It also found a few bad things and locked them away. :slight_smile:

I also installed the new Spybot Search & Destroy - the one that has the “resident” on it. I think its called Tea-Timer? Anyway, the Resident is constantly giving me pop-ups that I don’t understand. The popups say:

Category: Browser Menu Extension
Change: Value Deleted
Entry: AOL Toolbar Search

At the bottom of the popup is a button that says “Allow Change”. There is also a square to check that says “Remember This Decision”.

When I click the button that says “Allow Change” to make the popup go away, a NEW popup appears! This one then reads:

Category: Browser Menu Extension
Change: Value Added
Entry: AOL Toolbar Search

This popup has two buttons: “Allow Change” and “Deny Change”.

I get these EVERY time I open the IE Browser or my browser opens a new window. I don’t understand what a “menu extension” is or what “value” they are talking about. The browser itself looks the same as far as I can tell…? It Tea-Timer telling me I’m opening a new browser window? One of the free online games I play requires that I open many new windows (they pop up as part of the game) so I end up getting two annoying popups for EACH new window I open - that can quickly add up to be about 26 popups per day… :frowning: Or more.

So can someone explain which button I should click? Is Value Added good or bad? And what in the world is a “menu extension”? Do they mean the drop-down menu that shows the address of past pages you visited? Why can’t Tea-Timer use simple language so I can understand what its saying?

And why is it talking about the AOL Toolbar when I only get these popups on the IE Browser? I use AOL for my ISP so the AOL Toolbar (Browser) is always on my computer - its my “main” browser. I use the IE one for a few websites, like the one I play games at.

Is it OK to have BOTH Tea-Timer and the Avast “blue A-ball” (On-access scanner) running at the same time? I’ve had both running yesterday and today and it seems to work OK together…

Can someone recommend another free spyware program I can download and use on my computer, one that is good at removing spy cookies and so forth? One that will just scan my computer when I want it to and not be constantly running in the bottom tray (where Avast and Spybot is). I used to use Spy Sweeper but recently had to ditch it as it kept deleting its own definitions file upon updating! I also found out it was messing up my IE browser and causes things to load extremely slow… AVOID Spy Sweeper!

I am using Windows ME. And yes, I’m quite happy with ME.

Thank you for your time. I will be back later to check for replies.

~ Aqua

Hi…

Malwarebytes and SpywareBlaster are two that I would recommend for any system (free versions do not run in the background)…

http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html

Any detailed questions concerning teatimer itself might be better addressed at Safer Networking’s forum site…

http://forums.spybot.info/

Hope this helps! :slight_smile:

Best Regards…


Welcome to the forums, Aquaseamage. :slight_smile:

“menu extension” means that AOHRLL wants to add a menu extension to your IE browser. Thid extendion will add an AOL Search Bar to your IE frowser. I do not think you need this since you also have AOL browser which already has this function. But that is my opinion and you have to decide whether or not you want this added to your IE browser.

If you do not want this AOL Search bar added to your IE browser, do the following when each of the below pop-ups occur next time :

Category: Browser Menu Extension
Change: Value Deleted
Entry: AOL Toolbar Search
Choose “Allow Change” and “Remember This Decision”.

Category: Browser Menu Extension
Change: Value Added
Entry: AOL Toolbar Search
Choose “Deny Change” and “Remember This Decision”.

This will stop the pop-ups for the AOHELL “Browser Menu Extension” and actually, which ever one you of the 2 you do first should also stop the other one.

If, by chance, you want this AOL Search bar added to IE, do just the opposite of what I posted above.

I hope this helps you.


Hi Charley…

Thank you for your help on this. :slight_smile:

I don’t really know too much about teatimer and I wasn’t sure if anyone else here did, hence my suggestion of inquiring at the Spybot forum.

Best Regards…


No problem as I am glad to help. I have used Spybot-S&D since long before Teatimer and it has always served me well. In this case, as is usual, Teatimer is trying to protect the registry from unneeded or unwanted changes. Teatimer works perfectly for this when used with default settings.

In the case related in this thread, it is my opinion that the addition to IE is unneeded since the person’s most used browser is the AOHELL browser which already has this feature … AOL Search.


Hello Ardvark. I wasn’t aware Spybot had its own forum. I must have missed that somehow or else I would have asked over there. And since Spybot is popular I figured someone here would understand this message.

I will go download Malwarebytes and SpywareBlaster. Thank you very much for your suggestions. There are so many programs out there that often its hard for a general computer user to know which ones are good. I will also tell my friends about these two programs. I know my friend’s mom uses Avast on her computer, too.

ooo

Hello CharleyO. Thank you for explaining that this popup wants to add an AOL Search to my browser. It sounds like such a simple thing but as I’m computer illerate I don’t understand some terms. I did try to read about web extensions (on that free encyclopedia page) before posting here but I didn’t understand it.

And yes, I realize that Spybot is trying to protect my computer. That’s why I downloaded it and I appreciate that it’s doing it job. At least I know to delete junk emails and not to click on links in email - that’s how a lot of computers get infected.

I will follow your instructions and I’m sure the popup will go away. I just didn’t want to click “remember this decision” as I wasn’t too sure what it was talking about. I figured it better to ask an expert on this matter than make a mistake that might be difficult to fix.

Besides, now I have learned a few more computer terms and the next time I see them I will remember what they are. :slight_smile:

Once again I thank both of you for your help.

~ Aqua

The popups are now gone. :slight_smile: Your instructions worked very well. So you may mark this thread as “solved” if you do that here.

I will go download those two spy programs…

By the way, I’m learning a lot of things by reading the forum here, like that one should never have two virus programs on one computer (never knew that. Luckily I never did that!).

Keep up the GREAT work!!! :slight_smile:

~ Aqua


I am happy to have helped and that this is solved for you, Aqua! :slight_smile:

By the way, you can mark this thread solved by adding … (SOLVED) … to the title of this thread.

Please come back often, learn more, and maybe help others.

(you have helped others already by starting this thread) :slight_smile:


You’re welcome, I’m glad we could help! :slight_smile:

Best Regards…