Like an idiot I blew up my old laptop Friday with a glass of tea.



I bought a new one yesterday and I want to shoot the thing already.



I would like to run Firefox with Speed dial as the home page.



When I get it set up and close Firefox all is good until I reopen it and then I have "FindWide" as my homepage.



If I click on the General tab for AR15.com I get some BS survey in a new tab and the page I want never loads, this also happens with IE.


I'm also getting all kinds of links for stuff like "speed dial" and "Firefox" along with every other thing showing in posts.
I'm running Avast and Adblocker.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.






 

A+ Certified Tech Says:

Sounds like a Firefox setup issue or maybe your internet service is having problems.

Since I've owned my Mac using a Windows machine (particularly Windows 8) is painful.

Full disclosure: I'm not a computer guy and use mine for internet and email mainly.

If you bought Windows 8 when it came out, it might be excused because then we weren't really sure out how bad Windows 8 was.

If you buy Windows 8 today, it's all on you.  99.44% of people are saying it's shit and have been almost 2 years. You were warned.

Tough love.

That describes most Mac users.



 

I just got a new laptop this week. It too has window 8 and it is taking some getting used to. When I set up the laptop the first time I turned it on, I disabled all those tracking apps. Performing the recommended quick start enables them.

I am using IE right now and have not had an issue yet.

FindWide" as my homepage.
If I click on the General tab for AR15.com I get some BS survey in a new tab and the page I want never loads, this also happens with IE.


This has nothing to do with win8   you just have no idea what processes , add ons and extensions are running.  use microsoft security essentials theres no need for avast or adblock those are spamware in themselves.

My wife has winders 8, desktop and laptop.
She is always wanting me to make them work.

I have an old winders vista and am not up for a new pc anytime soon.

This. Someone needs to pay attention to what they're clicking during installs.

Windows 8 is great, no issues and I actually like the UI.


































 

 

The problem is when you d/loaded firefox you got a lot of this crap that you didn't ask for. It took me quite some time of deleting programs from my computer and disabling apps in chrome, firefox and IE before my problems were resolved. Windows 8 isn't really that bad after you master the learning curve.

yeah if you want to pay 4X$ for a PC thats made in china  go for it

go buy a windows 7 disk and reload

first step to unfucking windows 8:  install something like "classic Shell".  It will give you a windows 7 style start menu, and you can set it up to never show you the stupid metro UI ever again.

FIFY

The new trend with download sites is just not advertising, it's bundling a software package with a bunch of other adware crap.  Once you put the software such as Firefox on your system, a bunch of other stuff is also loaded on your system and it changes your default settings.  Many sites tell you what is being put on your system with the option to opt out, but some don't.





I don't ever load software from other sites except for the developer, but even that can be a problem now with the developer looking for ways to get more income by also bundling adware apps in their package.




It's just not a Windows 8 problem.




 

PEBKAC error for sure.

I will keep my windows 7 machines until they make another OS that works as well as windows 7, which might be a while the way Microsoft screws around with stuff.  If it ain't broke.....



At the job I left a year ago, my ahole boss wanted a windows 8 machine.  I said no you don't, he said yeah I do.  I ordered him a windows 8 laptop.  A week later he wanted me to send it back. I said they won't just take it back it's a laptop.  He said well the shift key sticks send it back.  I said they will only send you another one ya terd.

Always download software from the canonical source

Actually Win8 is the most stable Windows there ever was by far but the user interface sucks big time. Hopefully whoever thought a tablet interface on desktop and laptop computers was a good idea, and then told customers "fuck you if you don't like it" was one of the ones fired.

 

Yeahp.  AV catches less than 40% of threats out there and only the poorly written ones at that. Thats straight from MS themselves at TechEd earlier this year. Dont run as admin, this solves 9 out of 10 attacks. Be smart and educate yourself too. No that nigerian email for a million dollars is not legit. And win 8 is better, faster than win 7 in every way.

Sorry op, but this one sounds like problem exists between chair and computer.

Windows 8 is a big steaming pile*













*** because I don't read before I click & willingly install malware on my brand new laptop

FTFY  

Unfortunately this seems to include Windows Updates these days...



 

Apple for the win!

My dads laptop was new in box, I got it going for him, uninstalled as much of the bloatware I could, installed chrome, and he is getting popups out the ass... I'm actually at my wits end with it, and not sure how he deals with it. I told him to take it back at one point. I can load the same page at work on my win 7 machine with adblock, and him load it, and he gets about 4 popups locking up the browser.

The only install that was made was chrome from the direct source, No spam was installed at the same time.

Seems to me that from the factory it comes with adware hidden away so you can't uninstall it.

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate a PM.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download?src=ia&iaaid=50005300&ialnk=title

Windows Defender  for Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1 provides built-in protection against malware. You can't use Microsoft Security Essentials with Windows 8.1, but you don't need to—Windows Defender is already included and ready to go. But if you’re looking to protect a PC with an older version of Windows, you can use  Microsoft Security Essentials  to help guard against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. It provides free* real-time protection for your home or small business PCs.

ETA:  This is just a quote from the Microsoft website.  I don't endorse it or anything, because I don't know shit from shinola.  I used to run a combination of MSE and Malwarebytes on my Windows 7 machine, and it worked perfectly.  My new Windows 8.1 machine (and yes, Windows 8.1 sucks), came with Kaspersky, and it seems to work fine in combination with Malwarebytes.

That was the whole problem. People shouldn't have had too "learn the UI". There was no reason to change it.

If they did then people like you and I would be out of a job.

Leo Laporte got it right when he says that the average joe should buy an ipad because wintel systems are too complicated for them.

I've been a MS user since DOS.

2010-2013 I bought an IMAC after all the "it's so much easier" posts.

Not true at all for me. Maybe it's just learning curve and habit from windows usage, but I didn't find mac os to be intuitive or easier to use at all. Dumped the mac and built a high end gaming machine with windows 8.1 and have been much happier. Less time spent trying to google search how the fuck to do something.



Also, on the hardware front apples keyboard and mouse are extremely uncomfortable in favor of looks so I had to replace them.

Windows 8.1 works fine for me.  Never had any issues with it.

1.  Windows 8 is better than Windows 7.  If you absolutely refuse to get past the UI then run Classic Shell or Start8.



2.  What you are experiencing is the result of user error.  It's not because you're using Windows 8.



3.  Download, install, update, and run a full scan with Malwarebytes anti-malware.  Go in to your Firefox settings and set the homepage back to what you want it to be.  Go in to your Firefox add-ons > extensions/plugins and disable the shady ones.



4.  Stop downloading and installing shady software, and pay attention to the "would you also like to install...?" checkboxes bundled with other installers.

8 is fine.  It's metro that sucks.   It's easy enough to fix if you install Start8 or Classic Shell.  I personally prefer Start8.

Win 8 is not shit, it's actually quite good.  8.1 brought some really good changes if you prefer the classic style desktop.

OP, I run XP on my desktop and use Firefox with it.  

I will continue to do so until the day comes that I can't read my mail or go to a site I want to go to.

I have never understood the people who feel they need to run out and buy a new edition of software the first day that microsoft puts it up for sale.  It must be an ego/esteem thing.  Something like "Wow, I just got the new Windows product, so I am so cool."

It's just a machine to do tasks that you want done - not something to be adored, for fuck's sake.

If microsoft runs true to form, windows 10 will be along one of these days and it will be much more friendly than windows 8.

Win 7/mint/Kali here cause I'm too cheap to pay for windows 8.


Would you like to install the ask toolbar?

They said they are skipping "9" and going straight to windows ten because it's such a leap forward.


Will be interesting to see how so.

Yep. windows 8 is a cat turd.

yeah all those symptoms ain't os problems. More like bloatware loaded on your new PC by the manufacturer. Your whole post is Firefox this and Firefox that but its windows fault.

Delete all of the apps that you don't use.
You don't have to click on anything to get infected, some of those apps that they load on windows 8 go out and download malware.
I turned my new Windows 8 computer on for the first time, got on the internet and within seconds had so much garbage on the screen that I could not see the sites that I pulled up.
Turn off all updates-I never allow any version of windows to update, I have found that their updates cause far more problems than they solve.
I use Vipre antivirus, it took a few scans to remove all of the trojans.
After getting rid of almost all of the garbage it looks like there are two or three that I still haven't found, the system is still not usable as a word processor for business-it keeps changing touchpad and Word settings without input and will just delete documents while they are being produced.
As soon as I get a chance to locate Windows 7 drivers I will load 7 on this thing and be able to work effectively.

Anyone involved with Windows 8 should be fired and prevented from ever working in the industry again...probably fined also...

I got off of XP because I wanted an operating system that actually got patched for critical security vulnerabilities.

Did you put the latest OS updates on? I think the 8.1 update helps with a lot of issues. Plus if you're not running a touch screen you can just make it look like old windows.

 

Yep.










gd

Let's put aside your complete ignorance of computers and how they work and I'll explain why people "run out and buy a new edition of software."





-It is supported, where older versions either aren't supported or will eventually not be supported anymore like in the case of XP and one day Windows 7.  Support could mean anything from support in the event of an issue or bug, all the way up to security updates.  The latter being extremely important for an operating system, especially one that holds such a large market share and is constantly targeted by hackers.





-Security updates, because this deserves it's own spot in the list.  XP is no longer supported by Microsoft.  No more fixes, patches, or
security updates.  Do you know what this means?  If a hacker designs a
new virus specifically for XP right now that allows him access in to
your system so he can use it for whatever he wants, Microsoft will not
track down and patch/resolve that exploit like they do with Windows 7 and Windows 8.





-Compatibility with other software and hardware.  Most companies today aren't designing software, hardware, software updates, drivers, etc with XP in mind.  They're doing it for operating systems that are current and supported.





-Reliability/stability generally become better with newer releases.  They have data from previous releases/versions to show them what worked and what didn't and that data helps them create a better product.





-Efficiency, same as above for the most part.  They can make changes that allow a new operating system to better manage your system's resources.





So no, it's not an ego/esteem thing.  It's what people do when they want support, security, compatibility, stability, and efficiency.  If you don't want to upgrade then don't, no one is forcing you, but by sticking with Windows XP you are inviting hackers in to your system, your personal data, stuff you do and stuff you type(like CC information) online, etc and are basically giving them the ability to even use your system for their own nefarious purposes.  With newer operating systems this risk is reduced but not completely removed because the user is always the weakest link in the security chain and Microsoft can't fix that.