windows question
 

for some reason, i can only view one window at a time.

if i hit crtl-n to make another window, another window appears yet quickly vanishes leaving me back to just one.

can anyone help? thanks

Sounds like the classic case of adware, where they say your computer is infected, and they try to sell you their software that removes the windows window problem. I would switch to mozilla firfox ASAP to prevent further problems.

ok. i just downloaded mozilla firefox and it is now my homepage browser.

now what? i want it to get rid of all the bad stuff.

JenTay - as a suggestion go to Microsoft.com and download their Anti-SpyWare Beta program - Free and works very well.

I use a combo of an antivirus (McAfee) and also use both Lavasoft Ad-Aware and Spybot. That gives me decent protection to make sure I don't get alot of crap onto it.

The other thing I do is use my parents MAC when I can. Fast, simple, reliable. Period.

Sounds to me like there is a pop-up blocker working here

Not so sure Aklim, I'm running a pop up blocker, but ctrl-n works just fine for me. I'm leaning toward some malicious adware, Ad Aware 6.0 and SpyBot will probably clear the problem.

That's true but I would like her to check and make sure the blocker is not working first before we go towards downloading the Adware which is great.

No problem checking the easy stuff first. That is why I posted my results for her comparison.

EDIT: I'm not using Google or Yahoo pop-up blocker, mine is the one built into XP with SP-2 installed.

try running a google search. I just put in Internet explorer new window and came up with 463,000 hits. You will have to do some hunting but it sounds like windows problem caused by a virus of some sort.

Most times it seems easier to just reformat the hard drive and start over. I tend to do it about ever 4-6 months. I have gotten to the point where I can have it doen in about 3-4 hours.

As was mentioned in another thread a while back, a disk imaging utility can really be a time saver if drastic measures are desired. Pretty nice to be able to quickly restore everything (operating system, applications, configuration/customization, etc.) to any particular point in time at which one chose to burn an image.

As one example, the current version of Acronis TrueImage can be had (as a download) for $30. Cheap insurance, by my lights.