Yahoo Smahoo, I'll never download anything Yahoo again Grrrrrrrrrr

I know this is more of a rant, but maybe it will help others who might experience the same problem.

I recently got Verizon DSL, which is now partners with Yahoo. Fine, I have a Yahoo account for e-groups to be able to access the Fly Lady e-group. I don't use them much, and I didn't think there would be any problems associated with them.

With the DSL Verizon/Yahoo package, I'm able to download some security items. I went and downloaded the pop up blocker and anti-spyware programs. I wasen't too thrilled that they told me that I needed to download the tool bar to get the spyware. I did that anyhow. I figured what's another tool bar, and I can uncheck it. Ummm Hummmm.

I was actually thinking about the anti-spyware they had, but wanted to look into it further. I get on the net. Wow DSL is extremely fast from what I'm use to. On the first page I go to, I get a pop up advertising other Verizon/Yahoo security items that I didn't download. Ok, maybe this is a one time thing. I browse around on the net a little without any problems. Then I decide to get on Major Geeks.

I'm reading the posts, and see a link to a website I wanted to visit. The person was talking about how he had installed the Verizon/Yahoo package, and was having problems with pop up ads on these two particular pages. At this point I start right mouse clicking on the link and click on open in new window. I'm a multiple page window person, and am known to have 4 to 5 windows up at once. No problem with the first page. When I did that with the second page a very weird thing happened.

Practically as soon as the window opened and the page appeared, the major geeks page moved towards the new page and it looked like it combined into one page. This took about a split second. The third page was also gone. I almost yelled at the computer screen asking what it was doing. I have multiple pages open for a purpose.

Fine I thought at this point I'm not going to take many more chances. I went to open Easy Cleaner by ToniArts in a folder I had on the desktop. It wouldn't open. Fine there is more than one way to skin a cat. I tried through start - all programs. Still wouldn't open. This is now getting irritating. Now I had to go through my computer. Still wouldn't open. I went to the original setup file and did a repair, and restarted windows. As soon as I got back on I tried to open it again. It didn't work. I tried one last thing, right mouse clicked on the program in my programs and opened it that way.

Yay it finally worked. I uninstalled all Verizon/Yahoo programs I had on my computer. It is working fine now. I can open Easy Cleaner any old way I want to. I admit I didn't try opening up other programs, since I just wanted to get Yahoo off, and I wasen't sure if the original uninstall in Windows would get everything. I have noticed that Easy Cleaner catches regestry keys that the original installer leaves behind.

Needless to say everything is removed, the bar is gone, and my computer is happily back to normal.

Right now with my experience and reading the other person's experience with the same Verizon/Yahoo DSL pack, I believe they put their heads together and made a malicious maleware program whether they intended to or not.

Needless to say I'm not downloading Yahoo antivirus and am getting AVAST. I currently have eTrust, and for the longest time I tried to update and it would sit there and stare at me. It is not staring at me, but telling me it failed to download. Hello Avast, byebye eTrust.

Thanks for letting me vent a little, and what do you think of what Verizon/Yahoo did to my computer?

PS. I will keep Verizon DSL since it is the only service in this area, and I'm now locked into a one year contract. I never want to go back to dial up again if I don't have to.