"Found Hardware" Wizard

OK, I think I *finally* figured out what y'all were asking me to do. (DUH) All the security zones are set as you explained, Evan, except for "Internet," which wouldn't let me go to medium-high. There was no place to stop the slider between medium and high. When I put it on high, I got a what-are-you-stupid window telling me that the recommended setting for Internet is medium. So, I put it back there. However, I never clicked on the default button.

I am not logged in as an Administrator. What a scary thought! I am running I.E. 6 with Windows XP, Home Edition.

The cream-colored bar at the top of the download page says, "To protect your security, IE blocked this site from downloading files to your computer. Click here for options. "

 

It's always something! I proceeded with the download, and ended up with the dreaded Red X Error window, which said the following; "This driver cannot be installed on this computer. Please contact manufactured for further information."

What now?

 

I'm not getting the "Found Hardware Wizard" window anymore, so at least that problem is solved. If I update Windows to IE 7, is that going to be Vista?

Things seem to be working OK now, in general. I still have "issues," but I had those before I posted on the Windows forum. If update = Vista, then I will be in way more trouble! Y'all will never get rid of me.

Nevertheless, if it is what I need to do, I'll proceed.

 

OK, then. It doesn't seem too scary. I'll get that update done now. I hope I don't get any more Big Red X's.

I'm back. Good news/bad news. Good news: I found in Microsoft Update, "Your computer is set to receive security & critical updates automatically."

Bad news: I am stuck with THREE Google toolbars, plus that annoying dropdown menu which appears under the regular Google page search bar. (I use igoogle for my homepage. That accounts for one of the toolbars and is the only one I actually need). I cannot uninstall the thing because it's listed nowhere in my add/remove programs.

I have nothing but my Outlook Express toolbar; therefore, I cannot access Settings > Toolbars in order to get rid of it. There is no wrench anywhere with which to delete it. In fact, there are none of the icons I used to have, and no way of unloading this freakin' toolbar.

I can't check my spelling. I can't access my email at all from the Internet -- no "read mail" icon. Have to go all the way back to "start. "

 

I've been following this thread with interest as Evan Omo has been guiding you along. He's doing a great job and deserves a lot of credit for his fine assistance. I'm not trying to butt in here but if you select Tools from any Internet Expolorer window and then click on Manage Add-ons, you should be able to disable any or all Google toolbars.

 

It took me quite a while to be able to open the forum page. It opened cut in half horizontally, and every time I tried to maximize, it closed. The back button does not work, so I had to go back to my email to click on the thread, which does not always open. ???


Rockster -- great avatar! I followed your instructions, disabled to Google toolbar, restarted the computer, and found that nothing had changed. Meanwhile, I discovered my old icons by dragging the arrow across the dotted line on the third (bottom) level of all of the new toolbars. I found "Tools" and unlocked the toolbars. Went back to "Manage add-ons," which showed that the Google toobar had been disabled. Why do I still have it?

Here are the three tiers at the top of my previously-tidy page:

1)The two blue swooshy arrows (which do not work) with address bar that has annoying drop-down menu + two unknown icons + magnifying glass + another drop-down
2) Outlook Express toolbar
3) Star for favorites (used to be a lot larger and at the top with other icons), add-to-favorites icon + ANOTHER Google bar + tab (?), + very small icons, a few of which I recognize and a few I don't.

This really does seem like overkill to me. Remind me why IE7 is better again? Maybe I'll find out once I can actually use it.

Evan -- I don't think I'll go back to the "Manage Add-Ons" hiding place until I know why I wasn't able to disable the tool bar. Will I be able to get rid of the drop down there, too?

 

I can't do an uninstall in Add/Remove Programs, because there is no Google toolbar listed there. I really don't understand that one!

This may be a bad idea, but here it is: What if I uninstall IE7 altogether and then reinstall it? I noticed when it downloaded that it took forever, and no green bars ever showed up in the "Installing" box while I was waiting for it to finish. Could it just be a bad download? I'm obviously guessing....

I will proceed with the add on-less launch, but I would like to know what the AFT is going to clear. I confess I don't understand. Is it a hard drive cleaner? I don't want to lose all of my stuff as I have no back up.

Also, I cannot add anything into an existing favorite folder. I looked on line ti find out about this, and apparently it's a problem for others as well. Maybe they just don't know the secret yet?

...That was quick. I took a look at IE7 without add ons, and I still have the triple-decker stack of Google bars atop my page. I'm sure if I tried using the Internet or something, I'd notice a difference. But visually, nothing changed.

 

So, Evan -- When I read through your above post, it dawned on me that "Active X" was a problem with IE6. I'd get emails with attachments, and when I opened them, I'd get the Red X saying something to the effect that my system couldn't open Active X.

Then I decided I was better off having the trio of toolbars, especially since trying to delete was unsuccessful and maybe having them would allow me to open Active X. I went back to the add ons spot, re-enabled the Google toolbar, restarted the computer, and then proceeded to re-read your instructions. I got into System Tools > Internet Explorer, and the screen informed me that I was running Windows WITHOUT add ons! So, I did the whole procedure all over again with the same results.

I don't know why nothing I try to do (e.g., delete the toolbar, re-install add ons) isn't happening. Should I just ignore the fact that I can't do any of this stuff and proceed as normal?

Well, actually I can't proceed at all because the page telling me I'm running without add ons is blocking my access to the IE menu.

 

What happened is that I thought I had disabled the Google toolbar, and then I decided to go back in an re-enable it. I clicked "enable" and then restarted the computer. When I went back, it showed that I still had it disabled. In other words, I thought I hadn't re-enabled it.

On a whim, I just went in again to see what it said, and I am now enabled. !!!Maybe it takes time for the computer to "post" the changes? However, it still shows that I am running IE without add-ons. The page which bears that message is in the way of my proceeding on to the menu you mentioned in your earlier post.

I accidentally discovered that if you right-click anywhere on the toolbar, you get a list of stuff that you can put on or delete from your toolbar. So, I took care of the icons, etc. by doing that. I am getting used to the toolbar, and now that I can read my mail from the Internet, I am OK with leaving it on my screen for now. Do you use it yourself?

I ran the AFT Cleaner, but stopped short of paying $30 for their product. Here is what the final tally looked like:

Items found: 366
Ignored: 0
Restricted: 344
Repaired: 22

 

I downloaded the AFT cleaner from Major Geeks by clicking on "Free Downloads/Texas." Both that site and the snapfiles site open a window that say something like "unknown publisher -- do you want to proceed."

With the toolbar uninstall site, it asks me to select either 1 or 9.0. something.
Which do I choose?

Also, the Mcaffe download left me with no icon, so I'm wondering if it actually downloaded. There was no icon left after the incorrect AFT download, either. That's why I wonder if there isn't something really basic wrong with the initial IE7 download...

 

So, I chose the newer of the two choices at the Ann toolbar uninstall site. I got an error message/access denied. When I closed that window, behind it was an empty window which had a place to indicate which toolbar I wanted unistalled (it said it had detected 176 toolbars?!?!?).

However, there was no menu from which to choose, and I was not allowed to type anything into the blank space.