Error 404 page causes 'black, command-prompt box' to quickly flash on screen.....WHY?

Hi Everyone!

In the past 2-3 weeks or so I've been having this baffling problem happen, and I hope that someone will be able to tell me how to make it stop, and how to eliminate the 'debris' it leaves behind.

So here goes....at least 50-75% of the time that I click on a bad link on a web site or in an e-mail and it takes me to the 'Error 404' page, the black command prompt box, (I think that's what it's called...I'm still a novice at PC stuff.
Any way, the "black box" FLASHES in a quick blink and disappears...just as fast! I didn't know that it was having any other effects, but the other day I had to do a START>Run>msconfig thing, and I found that ALL of the URLs for the 'Error 404' pages that the black window popped-up on were stored in the command bar, (over to the far right I clicked the tiny blue bar that makes the drop-down menu show up), and there was a BIG LIST of all the pages that I mentioned above.

Has this ever happened to anyone else, and if so, how do I make it STOP???? This seems to be something that should NOT happen, and I don't know if something needs to be changed in my Registry, or is this a 'harmless quirk'?

Also, how do I DELETE all of the URLs that are stored there....I've tried everything that I can think of, but I can't get rid of them, AND the Error 404 page still makes the 'Black Box' flash on the screen and add the page that I was trying to reach to the ever-growing collection of URLs.

PLEASE help me solve this mystery....it baffles me why this is happening, and
and I'd like it to stop storing useless info in a place that I didn't know URLs even belonged in the first place!

Any explanation as to why this is happening....and directions telling me how I can get it to STOP will be GREATLY appreciated.

Thank you in advance for any help about this.

Best Regards;
Spookie

 

Hello Spookie,

I can address one part, the accumulation of the history of url's.

In IE's toolbar at the top:

Click on Tools

Click on Internet Options

Under the History section, click on the clear history bar.

Regards - Charles