Active X popup's driving me nuts

Hi all,

I'm using XP Pro + IE6 (No, I haven't installed SP2 yet - backing up 45 gigs first!) but starting during the last week or so, I am overwhelmed with Popup's saying "An Active X script is trying to access your page and is marked safe. Do you want to allow it? ".

It is popping up so often I can't read any pages any more, about every 5 to 10 seconds.

What on earth has started this off? - I ain't done nuthin' 'onest!
And more to the point how can I stop it?

Also Spybot seems to be finding 'Avenue A's' all the time and wanting me to confirm that I want to block them - Of course I do - can't it figure that out from the 67,000 times I said so?

Please help a gibbering wreck...

Regards,

Gizmo

 

Hello Gizmo,

IE's ActiveX settings: IE tool bar > Internet options > Security tab > Custom level. The ActiveX settings are at the top, one or more of these settings are "prompt ".

Give this a read: http://www.infinisource.com/techfiles/surf-safe.html

SpyBot has an option to "protect me silently ". I don't use the Resident processes - immunize or Teatimer or SDHelper. So look around in the settings area.

You probably have to be in Advanced Mode: click Mode > advanced in upper left corner, that will give you the options panel.

Regards - Charles

 

Gizmo--

Is this something new?
Normally, I would suspect only a mistaken change in your Security settings (see the P.S.)
But

I suspect spyware. You say you are already using SpybotS&D. Are you sure you have the latest reference files before you run a scan?
You might also run AdAware
http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/
which sometimes finds things SpybotS&D does not.
I also suggest you do two things
1) IE Tools|Internet Options|Privacy tab|set slider to Medium High
2) Install IESpyAds
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/resource.htm
which will automatically put malware sites (including Avenue A) into your Restricted Sites list.


P.S. Except for the frequency of the messages, I would have suspected that something must have changed the settings in IE Tools|Internet Options|Security tab|Custom Level|ActiveX--specifically "Run ActiveX controls and plugins ". If set to Prompt, you get the messages and have the choice. Usually if you click "No" you will see the page just fine. So I set that to Disable. No messages. The only problem is that some pages, like Windows Update or those that use Macromedia Flash, will not work. So the choice is to have the choice (Prompt) and lots of messages, set to Enable (no messages, but minimal security), or Disable with the results mentioned. Since I know most of the sites which I trust but require use of ActiveX, I put them into Trusted Sites (unchecking the box about "Require Server Verification... ").

 

Thanks,

To Charlesvar and Welsh Jim, Many thanks for the replies.

You've given me a bit to chew on here so I''ll be a while...

But... No. I haven't touched any of the settings in IE or Spybot and it all started out of the blue about three or four days ago.

I looked in IE's security tab and found (as I expected) that Active X was set to disabled? but, there were so many settings there of which I had never seen before, it made my head spin! I guess I'll have to sit down with a black coffee and read up about them. I really had no idea it had got so complicated in there.

I will be back...

Regards,

(Welsh) Gizmo

 

Try PTFB

I use a program called PTFB ( Push the Freakin' Button ) to cancel popups there is a pro version now but you can still download the free version Here along with a description of what it does. I use it to automatically deny Active X from running and cancel the popups, it is easily disabled by a right mouse click to allow what Active X you want to run, it allows you to keep a reasonable security setting without the annoyance of continual mouse clicking.

 

This is I think a bit of a dog's breakfast.

Option is to quit IE6 and try Mozilla.

However, I think the control you are looking for might be

advanced->allow active content to run
(which is about the third last control in the list)

if this is not ticked I seem to be getting a prompt every time IE6 sees Javascript

 

Thanks for the above...

I have tried the "allow active content to run" and (at least for the moment) am not being bothered with popups.

I think though that I well may try Mozilla anyway...

IE is getting too complex for me thesedays - like being caught in a war zone crossfire methinks.

Thanks for the help.

Gizmo

 

Gizmo--

Glad to hear it. I think you can continue to use IE!!
I assume you have not enabled the two settings for ActiveX which involve unsigned or unsafe controls. Those should remain at Disable.

 

Reply...

Oh Absolutely, except as mentioned above I haven't touched anything in IE, I have now also downloaded PTFB as suggested, and will see how that goes.

Thanks again...

 

Gizmo--Since you now allow ActiveX controls to run, you should get very few of the "popups" you mentioned earlier. Actually they are messages generated by Windows and they are there for your own protection and information. They are not really "popups ". So, I wonder if PTFB will really block them anyway. I have two popup stoppers on my PC (one from
WinXP SP2 and the other from Google Toolbar), and I get the messages about ActiveX from time to time.
I think PTFB is really more for blocking popups sent to your PC from websites.

 

Gizmo,
Is there a chance that you have Windows Auto Update enabled? I think you may have SP2 already. The changes you described in the security area make me wonder, and some settings do get changed, after the install. Go to your Control Panel> System and tell us what it says there, please.

Johanna

 

Hi Again,

Johanna, Yes I do have SP2 installed - now! However when all this aggrovation started it was not, and as noted on another thread SP2 has "Bombed" my computer in all sorts of other ways, however, the ActiveX problem does now seem to have gone away.

At the time the ActiveX popup's became a neusance, I had been running quite well and the fact that it blew up out of the blue fazed me somewhat, as a matter of routine, I do avoid meddling with controls especially when they are all working OK and I also try to avoid "dodgy" sites wherever possible.

Looking back over the posts, it was suggested that maybe spyware was involved, and on reflection it does seem that as soon as I resolved the Avenue A problem, the ActiveX problem disappeared...

Maybe coincidence?

The problem was that I broke my own rule of trying one thing at a time and consequently now cannot really say what, if any, of the actions resolved the issue, I will try to be more restrained in future.

But thanks a lot for all the useful advice.
Regards,
Gizmo