Resolved Chinese characters in menus and dialogs - don't know what they mean

Westside,

I appreciate your support. I've gone to the cyberlynk.net website and don't think it's worth pursuing. What am I going to say to their tech support: "When I went to your site I got a Chinese prompt in my dialog boxes and menus "? I'd be treated as just an annoying geek. I just don't think this approach will get me anywhere. I rather think this is a Firefox problem, where some intruder has been allowed in under the radar and has been allowed to alter the menus and dialog boxes without permission or acknowledgment.

But in the end that's the reason why I'm posting my problem here on the Windows BBS in the Firefox forum. If this doesn't help, should my next step be with Firefox or Mozilla?

Frank D

 

It is your call. You can treat it as a Firefox problem, and perhaps, create a separate Firefox profile. I would not know what would cause the Chinese (the site is, probably Korean)characters to show. And, what is the problem to ask a question?
Well, I have an answer below. Still, I sent an e-mail.
Mozilla has seen better days, like Netscape, but you could try the Seamonkey suite, which is the direct descendant of Netscape and Mozilla.
Of course, one can check the site with IE. And, lo, and behold, it looks the same as Firefox. Site under construction, and only Oriental characters!
I rest my case.

 

????

two different sites two different links:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...inanchor:+/files165.cyberlynk.net&btnG=Search

ftp client [ciberlynk.net] is the site and link that was used by Frank D to get to microtak drivers and files for scanner.

He has not used ciberlink.net and is not familiar with the software offered there.

I'm still not sure what this has to do with his current problem or even if it has anything to with it, but it is getting out of hand and confusing me so I thought I'd throw this in to see if someone can explain why they think the problem originated with the site.

I will get back to this post later.

Frank D,

Original suggestions I supplied was in the hopes of getting you back to a point where this font snafu wouldn't be a problem and then slowly adding components back in to see if you could reproduce the same behavior.

!]Firefox safemode
2]backup current/make new account
3]plugin elimination
4]and procedures
5] "event viewer" exploration

are all possible trouble shooting tools that can be used. While I can understand your attachment to your plugins, at least you can make an informed decision or seek plugin update, if the problem can be pinned downed.

All will be time consuming, but if you truly want to cure this, should be done.

-----------------
This is one of those times when I wish I knew more about what components directly effect the "menu and dialogue box" language and font choices in Firefox, but I don't. I can only attack this problem as I do most, by throwing anything and everything I know at it and hope something I try fixes the issue.

Once you stated that you've checked all language and font settings, everywhere, and made sure they where as should be, Troubleshooting using all methods becomes the solutions to try.

 

Frank D, I had another look at your screen shot and noticed the Radio button with the Asian characters alongside was active. Did you download from that or did you save to Desktop? Have you cleared Temporary Files lately? Neil.

 

Neil,
The timeline of what happened is this:
(1) I Googled for the Microtek software and clicked on the cyberlynk.net link
(2) The software downloaded and I copied it to my USB flash drive. I paid no attention to, and don't remember, what my Download dialog box looked like at that time. It might have had the Chinese prompt or not, but I can't recall.
(3) A short time later, when right-clicking on a page in Firefox I was surprised to see three Chinese-character commands in the menu (see my screenshot #2). I used the Menu Editor plug-in to stop them from showing.
(4) The next time I downloaded a file from the Web, I noticed the pre-selected Chinese-character option in the Download dialog box. That's when I decided to post my question on this BBS.

To answer your questions: no, I have never used the Chinese-character prompt. I've avoided it. I always either choose to run the downloaded item if it's a PDF or MP3 file, or save it if it's an EXE file or anything that executes a program. I've cleared my caches in Firefox and Internet Explorer at least twice since this first happened.

Frank

 

Hi Frank,
I noticed you have an IE Tab extension. Could this or one of it's many settings be the culprit? It will add and effect the context menu options.

 

Goddez,
I've checked the options in the IE Tab extension (add-on) options window, on all the tabs, and there's nothing there that I can see would be connected with context menus.
The sites that I've enabled in this window are: update.microsoft.com, housecall.trendmicro.com, housecall65.trendmicro.com, q.exitreality.com, techrepublic.com.com, web archive.org, www.liveleak.com, www.pandasoftware.com, www.weather.com, www.windowsupdate.com and www.zamzar.co. All other options are only for tabs, not menus. Thanks for checking.

Frank

 

Frank,

Check these settings:

First, turn off Auto Detect:
View | Character Encoding | Auto Detect
Turn Auto Detect setting to: off

Next:
Clear the Location Bar
In the blank field, type: about:config
In the "Filter" blank field, type: intl.charsetmenu.browser.cache;
Right click the Preference Name:
Select: Reset
This returns the preference to the default setting

In the "Filter" blank field, type: intl.charsetmenu.browser.static
This preference value should be: ISO-8859-1, UTF-8

You've never confirmed that you have tried the below:

Started Firefox in Safe Mode
Started Firefox in a new profile.

If the problem remains in Safe Mode, then the new Profile should help.

 

Ramona,

(1) I've just posted a third screenshot to http://picasaweb.google.com/frankd14612/Screenshot#5361324588545904498 which shows what the Chinese-character commands look like in the main context menu. (This is just to be complete.)

(2) SuperAntiSpyware is into its third hour and has found the following "threats ":
Adware.Tracking Cookie
Adware.HBHelper
Browser Hijacker.Deskbar

Looks like that third one might be the bad actor.

(3) I opened Firefox in Safe Mode (without add-ons) and the Chinese commands did NOT appear in the main context menu.

(4) I've restarted FF in normal mode (with add-ons) again and the Chinese commands are back again in the main context menu.

You said "if the problem remains in Safe Mode, then the new Profile should help." Can I take that to mean that "if the problem GOES AWAY in Safe Mode, then the new Profile" won't be necessary?

How about this: I'll disable the most recently added add-ons one by one and see if the Chinese characters go away?

Frank

 

Frank,

Since the Chinese characters don't exist in Safe Mode, this tells you that it is definitely one of your extensions.

Yes, that is correct, as you have found the problem.

I would suggest that you disable them all, then add them one by one until you find the one that is causing the problem.

BTW, were the settings in about:config O.K.?

 

Oops! I forgot to add, that the Browser Hijacker.Deskbar should be removed, along with the tracking cookies. The Adware.HBHelper is also a trojan...

 

Ramona,

First off, after running SuperAntiSpyware and getting rid of those spyware/trojans, there was no change to my FF context menu or Download dialog box.

Next, I compromised. Of my 47 add-ons, I uninstalled 26 that I felt I could live without and which didn't have multiple settings, because I'd hate to have to try to replicate all those nice, comfortable settings if and when I reinstall them.

OK, now for the Results: Success!!! After uninstalling those add-ons and rebooting FF, the Chinese characters are gone from both the context menu and the Download dialog box!

As to the character encoding settings in about:config I don't know yet. I'll have to wait until I view some pages with mixed language sources.

The big thing for me right now will be to reinstall my add-ons and try them out one at a time. I'll keep you posted when I find out who the culprit was.

Thank you and Goddez1, Westside, and RetiredLearner for your help. I know you've all been telling me that it's probably one of my add-ons, but I guess I had to get down to the bottom of the barrel before actually working on them. Thanks all for sticking with me. I'll let you know if and when I find the particular add-on that caused the problem.

Frank D

 

Frank,

Way to go! I will be interested to know which of the Add ons was the culprit.

 

In reviewing the list of my previously installed add-ons, I saw that there were quite a few that I really didn't need. I had tried them out at one time, then just forgot that they were still there.

The not-so-good news is that I didn't go all the way to complete the test to find the culprit. I stopped short of reinstalling those add-ons I didn't want or need. One of these may be the bad actor, but since I don't intend at this point to reinstall them I won't be able to find out. I'm going to let well enough alone. Sorry for stopping short, but I don't want to risk getting back into trouble.

For everyone's view, here's the complete list of add-ons that I had before starting my trimming, showing which ones I uninstalled for testing (x), and which ones I reinstalled when I found them to be clean (+). All those marked O were not touched, and those that I've installed since finishing testing are marked (N).
(O=unchanged) / x=uninstalled / +=reinstalled / N=new since testing)

O CoolPreviews 2.7.6.0623
O Distrust 0.8.1
O Enhanced History Manager 0.5.8.05.1
O Forecastfox 0.9.10.1
O Greasemonkey 0.8.20090123.1
O History Submenus 1.33
O IsAdmin 2.1
O Java Console 6.0.14
O Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.1
O Nightly Tester Tools 2.0.2
O NoScript 1.9.7
O Organize Status Bar 0.6.3
O Places' Full Titles 3
O Read it Later 0.9947
O Screengrab 0.96.1
O StatusbarEx 0.2.19
O Stylish 1.0.5
O Tab Mix Plus 0.3.6.1.080416
O Wayback machine toolbar button 0.1
O Yet Another Smooth Scrolling 2.0.21
x+ Adblock Plus 1.1
x+ BitDefender QuickScanner 0.9.5.3
x+ Flashblock 1.5.11.2
x+ IE Tab 1.5.20090525
x+ Inline Translator 0.6
x+ Nice Translator 0.3
x+ QuoteURLText 1.0.8
x+ RAMBack 1.0
x+ User Agent Switcher 0.7.2
x+ YouTube to MP3 1.0.4
x Auto Context 1.4.5.6
x Bookmarks Scrollbar 1.1.0
x ChromeEdit Plus 2.7.2
x Copy Plain Text 0.3.3
x Fasterfox Lite 3.0.11
x FlashGetMini 1.0.0
x FoxyProxy 2.13
x GoogleEnhancer 1.70
x GoogleTube 1.21
x Java Quick Starter 1.0
x Menu Editor1.2.6
x NoSquint 1.93.2.1
x Options Menu 1.7
x Show Picture 2.0
x Unofficial Google Translate Firefox extension 1.4
N DownloadHelper 4.6
N Fasterfox 3.0.4
Google Gears 0.5.23.0 [DISABLED] (Can't get rid of it!)

I know this doesn't provide the answer to the original question, but for me, all's well that ends well. Firefox is running smoothly again.

Thanks to all who helped and stayed with me on this!

Frank D

 

Yeah!

Thank you for the update. Your welcome.

That sure is a lot of extensions and plugins. I always wondered if loading Firefox down with these buggers would bog the speed of Firefox down as well. I guess you haven't found that to be an issue?

I don't know if you can really rule out the ext and plugins that you've reinstalled since settings may have been re-set for them [the ones that have option settings] but who cares, all's well that ends well.

Can you edit this post and set it as resolved?

 

First of all, yes, I agree that we can't rule out the possibility that one of the uninstalled/reinstalled addons was the culprit, but the exercise of uninstalling/reinstalling cleaned it up. That will remain part of the mystery.

And then, yes, I have a lot of extensions but also a method. My way of operating is to just keep adding them as needed/desired until there's a noticeable slowdown or problem. Then I go through the list and weed out the ones I don't need. In all the time I've been using Firefox I haven't found speed to be a problem, although it may be just my acquired taste. My PC is almost 10 years old, has only 768 MB of RAM and a 700-MHz CPU. Firefox takes about 30-40 seconds to open. Once open, it plugs along at a decent (for me) speed. It does all I want it to do. I don't complain about start-up speed, because I keep it open all day, so that initial start-up time is trivial. I have a friend with a 2-year-old PC with a ~3-GHz CPU and 3 GB of RAM, and when he opens Firefox it takes about 15 seconds -- and he complains about how slow it is!!! I've used his PC and I don't notice any speed difference in the operation of Firefox between his and mine. It may be there if you use a stopwatch, but I don't notice it. I think it's mostly perception.

You just brought up a good subject (I know, OT) that I've been wondering about: plugins. I have a load of plugins in Firefox that I never installed and many that I don't want. However, I can't uninstall them because there's no uninstall option. I can only disable them. But whether they're enabled or disabled doesn't seem to make any difference. Why? Is this the way FF is supposed to work? Add-ons are optional but plugins are there to stay?

Thanks again!

Frank

P.S. As you asked, I've set this post as resolved.

 

Frank,
I went over the thread, and noticed that you had more an interested being able to read the Oriental characters, than finding out why there was an issue. Also, that there was a great desire to keep the extentions. Goddez did mention Firefox Safe Mode as a way of disabling all extention. A great way of finding out if any extention could have caused a problem. The use of 3.5 was considered unacceptable because many extentions were not working with the update. As far as I can read there was no mention of having tried 3.5 with the site in question, because the extentions were more important. I wish I had asked the question sooner, saving a lot of time and effort.
One hint, the add-ons are in folders, and the day when the file/folder is created would be found in the extention folder of the profile. For instance three extentions of 3.5.1 are dated June 29 or 30, i.e. when I first installed 3.5.1. All other extentions have a later date. Any way, you could have narrowed down to the guilty extention, by simply looking at the date.
As for plugins, they are external programs, which are being used by a number of programs. Firefox does not have plugin .dlls, like older programs like Netscape. Disabling the plugin is the same as removing the .dll file in Netscape. In my case, I have three different versions of Firefox, and I ,surely would not want to uninstall the plugin program.
In any event, you may have "only" 21 extentions to look at. Most of them I have never heard of. Once I had an extention problem, confirmed by running Firefox in Safe Mode, and I uninstalled all but a couple of add-ons. It was ok. I reinstalled the other one at a time, and at the ninth one I found a culprit, which I removed. I reinstalled all others, and thy were ok. It took me about half hour, but I learned quite a bit.
By the way, my computer is about seven yrs.old, 512 MB memory but 2.8 Ghz processor.
The number of extentions, and tabs, affect the loading speed, but not the processing.

 

Westside,

I appreciate your follow-up and your being so thorough. You covered a few items that I think others might benefit from also.

It's true at first I was more interested in knowing what the characters meant, so I'd know the type of "threat" -- if there was one -- and who might be the "guilty" party for having done the unnanounced, drive-by installation! Later on I was just bent on getting rid of the infestation, whoever did it.

Yes, Firefox without add-ons is probably not as good as Chrome (which I tried for about an hour and decided it was not worth it. Speed isn't everything.). But let's face facts. For example, when you buy a car, you don't just say "I want the fastest car available!" and not think of anything else. You think about convenience, comfort, luxury, etc. Going with Chrome as a browser was like having a 200-mph motorcycle, when I really wanted a Lincoln Town Car. Any feature I want is available in Firefox, but not in the others (at least the ones I've tried or read about).

I did use Safe Mode, which showed that the infestation could be prevented by getting rid of an add-on.

Until FF3.5 allows the use of all my favorite extensions I'll continue to use version 3.0.12.

Yes, your suggestion about finding out the bad actor by the installation dates of the extensions was a good one, but I didn't know of it at the time. In the future that will be the second thing I try after Safe Mode.

I don't know why Mozilla has add-ons that are user-optional, but plug-ins that aren't (where they get installed from I don't know), and why add-ons can be uninstalled, while plug-ins can't be. I'm not really interested in knowing why. I'd just like to see unwanted plug-ins "go away" from the list, like uninstalled add-ons. And nothing tells me what happens when I disable a plug-in. If it can be disabled, why isn't the information (as to why it's needed) right there with the plug-in?

It looks like your PC is in about the same overall shape as mine, being old and under-RAM'ed, but you do have a 4X advantage over me in CPU speed. Obviously the machines are still serviceable.

So all in all, it was a good exercise for me and the results were good. It saved me from living with an unknown threat (whichever add-on might have caused it) and weeded out a bunch of unused add-ons, and I learned a lot in the process, thanks to you, Goddez1, Ramona and RetiredLearner.

It's great to know there are forums like these with knowledgeable people who are willing and able to help those in trouble.

Thanks again!

Frank

 

Frank,
I must add a few more things, which I did not think of checking up before.
1.Extentions are just that. Add-ons created by someone to be be added to Firefox, for whatever functionality. A good add-on should be serviced indefinitely, but this is not, always, the case. Some people lose interest in the process, and, then goodbye add-on.
FF3.0.x will be updated till the end of the year, but then it will be up to date with vulnerabilities, and stuff like that. In my opinion, it is unwise to stick to a version, because it supports some add-on. The browser comes first.
2. A program, incorrectly called "plugin" is installed in the computer, and may or may not send some .dll file to certain software. My 3.5.1 has only a few .dll files, while 3.0.12 has near 6 MB, mostly because I used to copy the entire Plugin folder from program to program, as far back as Netscape. But, certain applications can be used by Firefox versions, without adding .dll file. Firefox does the dirty work of linking to these programs. For instance, I have several .dlls related to Quicktime in 3.0.12, but none in 3.5.1. However, both work fine with Quicktime files.
I am, still, using the Seamonkey suite, which uses the .dll files, and three Firefox versions. My FF3.0.12 has ton of .dlls, 3.5.1 portable has 80% of that number, while the regular 3.5.1 only four. I don't even pay attention to the Application list, but it is the only thing which matters.

 

Westside,

There are a few items in your last post that are way over my head.

I never could figure out why some items are called (a) extensions and others (b) add-ons, and others (c) plug-ins. I'm sure there is a distinction to those who design and build Firefox. But to me, a plain-vanilla user, they are all just "helpers" attached to FF, which enable the browser do things it can't do without them. I understand that some of them wear out, get outdated, don't get updated, whatever, making them defunct. But IMO the good folks at Mozilla should be making that clear up-front, before I am allowed to download and install one of those (a)'s, (b)'s, or (c)'s. My simple-minded, user-oriented point is: If they install and work, I will use them. If they don't install/work, I won't (and can't) use them.

Based on what I just said, I'll continue to use FF3.0.x as long as it works, or as long as I don't hear Mozilla/Firefox folks shouting "Jump ship!" After all, I'm running Firefox in reduced-rights mode (via "DropMyRights "), and with the ZoneAlarm Pro firewall and AVG 8 software running in the background. Am I still vulnerable after using all this armor?

Finally, here's where I have to say sorry, but when you talk about plugins "sending .dll files" and "linking to programs," I'm at a complete loss to understand the subject, and I really don't want to. To me, that's for designers and developers. I'm (figuratively) in the driver's seat, not the engine compartment. My belief is that if it's available to the general public, it should "just work. "

Thanks for the follow-up.

Frank