I am so innocent! PS - I can't stay still long enough for my owner to take a decent picture of me.
Now, I know you’ll probably think I’m scapegoating my poor cat, but last week I had a serious issue with my browser being hijacked.
You know how Google ads pop up in your homepage and e-mail. I avoid clicking on these ads, but as you know, my cat loves sittting on my laptop and in the process of getting comfortable she click on the keyboard and tracking pad keys. On numerous occassions she’s actually started the search engine or click on links that the mouse cursor happened to be resting over. Well, one morning last week, she clicked on an ad that opened up a page that installed something onto my computer the likes of computer herpes (sorry to be so graphic). Any search I typed regardles of the engine (Google, Yahoo, even ERIC) would result in links that would open up adpages. Yes, it was highly annoying. Somehow she also managed to turn off the NoScript program I use in conjunction with Firefox.
My dear husband helped me scour for options. I think he tried four or five downloadable or web-based ‘cleansing/repair’ software applications. He even tried the latest version of the Microsoft systems malware detection tool. Not surprisingly this didn’t help at all. He finally found Malwarebytes, which actually did the trick. I’d recommend this application for anyone who’s experiencing issues. Apparently, there are scores of people who are having this very issue with browser hijacking. How irritating. It makes me want to write to the vendors/products advertised on the adpages and say I will NEVER buy your product because you choose ad systems that make these unethical and low practices.
About dealing with my overactive electronic kitty…I now have a Toddler Key Lock set up on my computer. When I get up to leave my desk, I can click the lock on. The lock also activates immediately after 5 minutes. To reactivate my screen and keyboard, I simply need to type a password. Now, if the cat figures this out, I know we’re in trouble.
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