Links dont open in IE8

Discussion in 'Malware Help (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by gofergal, Oct 29, 2010.

  1. gofergal

    gofergal Private First Class

    Hi
    I am trying to help a friend solve a problem with his browser. He saves website links to a wordpad and has always clicked them to open IE. Lately they do not work. I have cleaned a few trojans and other junk, dumped all the cache files, tried Firefox and it seems to be ok MOST of the time. I did notice a time or two if we pasted the link directly in the address bar it would open. and once in awhile if we opened IE FIRST then the links would work.
    We cannot detect anything in programs or from HJT that would be doing this. We have followed microsoft's guide too. Disabling add-ons did notthing. We even downloaded IE 9 beta hoping that would help but again, nothing.

    Can someone suggest what other stuff we could look for or do?
    Microsoft Essentials found a couple of items...... Win32/Hiloti.gen!D and Rogue Win32/FakePAV and now the scan runs clean.

    Thanks for help....
     
    gofergal, Oct 29, 2010
    #1
  2. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Wordpad does not allow clickable links. Did you mean Word or some other editor that allows real hyperlinks to be embedded. And why isn't he just saving links to Favorites in the browser which is what it is designed for?

    If you have other problems that you think are malware related, you need to run the standard cleaning procedure and attach the requested logs.
     
    chaslang, Oct 29, 2010
    #2
  3. gofergal

    gofergal Private First Class

    He has used the links in the past... are you thinking of notepad? And he is just not willing to "update" to favorites :) this is an ongoing battle but to him this is easier.. ug I agree.
     
    gofergal, Oct 29, 2010
    #3
  4. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    No! Wordpad is not a program that supports hyperlinks. Microsoft Word and other MS Office applications do but not the Windows build in Wordpad.

    Then he must love wasting a lot of time.
     
    chaslang, Oct 29, 2010
    #4
  5. gofergal

    gofergal Private First Class

    Chaslang,
    I don't mean to be disrespectful....but links from WORDPAD DO open. He has Windows 7 ... not sure if that makes a difference. I even tried it with my wordpad and they opened fine.
    I have changed his default browser to Firefox and when I click the link it opens just fine. Just doesn't when IE is default.


    And I agree with you about the favorites. I have tried for 6 years but he is just comfortable with his "setup" LOL

    Anyone have any more suggestions??
     
    gofergal, Oct 29, 2010
    #5
  6. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Yes it would possibly make difference. You did not say he was using Win 7. The new version may support hyperlinks, I never tried it. Old versions do not.

    However he could not have been using Wordpad in Win 7 for 6 years since Win 7 is not that old. So how was he using hyperlinks before? MS Word?

    At any rate, you would be better served posting your specific question about opening links from Wordpad in the Software Forum since this is not a malware issue. If you run IE and navigate to web pages with links ( even link our cleaning procedure ) and click on the links from IE, do they open? If not, perhaps you just have an IE option disabled in Advanced settings.
     
    chaslang, Oct 30, 2010
    #6
  7. gofergal

    gofergal Private First Class

    Yes, if we open IE that works, and we can move around. It is only when we click a link that the IE screen comes up but gives "NOT RESPONDING" message at the top.
    I am not sure what he used before wordpad.

    I will try posting in the software forum.
    Thanks,
     
    gofergal, Oct 30, 2010
    #7
  8. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Or if you want to verify there is no malware at play, run the cleaning procedure a I mentioned in my first post and attach the logs. Until you have done that, I would still refer you to the software forum.
     
    chaslang, Oct 30, 2010
    #8
  9. gofergal

    gofergal Private First Class

    Thanks,
    I have run the malware steps.... except i added in housecalls and it finally found 10 items, including 4 vundoG bugs it said it did not clean. So, we ran Vundo and it said it did not find anything to clean. But the problem still persists. I have posted in the software forum but nothing helpful yet.
    Thanks,
     
    gofergal, Oct 31, 2010
    #9
  10. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Unless you attach the logs for us to review, I cannot comment any further. For all I know, Housecall may have only had false detections or it found left overs in System Restore.
     
    chaslang, Oct 31, 2010
    #10

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