Dwight Watt - Newspaper Article #245 4/2/2014


Question: How do I get rid of an extension that keeps opening in my browser?

Answer:

Recently I was working on a computer that kept trying to connect to live-lyrics.com and popping up advertisements and showing links to various videos.

The first thing to get rid of spyware like this is run a full scan of your computer using your anti-virus and antispyware software after making sure both have current definitions and signatures and cleaning what is found.

Next go in your browser and remove all add-ons that you do not use or recognize. Many people run no add-ons but some like having the Google and Java add-ons so they can either search quicker or load some pages quicker. However many add-ons will slow down how fast the browser and pages load.

In Internet Explorer you can mange your add-ons by going to Tools on the menu bar and then Manage Add-ons. In Chrome click on the button with three lines then Tools then Extensions. You can disable the extensions or Add-ons in both places you do not want.

In the case of live-lyrics that will not fully solve it. Avast (including free edition) has a way to remove it. Start Avast then choose Tools in the bar on the left then choose Browser Cleanup. Click the Start Browser Cleanup button. It will then look. Any add-ons it finds that do not have 5 orange stars you should remove. Avast has rated them on rather ok and not excessively slowing system. On the left in the bar between home button (house shape) at top and help button (?) there will be a button for each browser you have. Now click on each of them and see if left for you to disable and remove.

The developers of bad software to do spying and viruses are continuously finding new ways to work around the anti-virus and anti-spyware programs and these live live-lyrics are installing without permission but Avast spots when try to run. I suspect soon the programs will stop and clean them.

Thanks Lucille for the question.