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IE pop-up notice -- during boot! ???
Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 7:26 pm
by califdon
Beginning a few days ago, I'm getting a pop-up error message during and immediately after the boot process that says it's coming from Internet Explorer, which IS NOT RUNNING (I only use IE to check for cross-browser compatibility of web pages)! It says "This page is accessing information that is not under its control. This poses a security risk. Do you want to continue?" WTF? Do I have some malware spoofing IE, or is some IE process being triggered by something else???
There are lots of references to this message, but they are all talking about actually using IE to open a URL, which I'm not doing (at least, not intentionally, and I see no evidence that IE is running).
Re: IE pop-up notice -- during boot! ???
Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 7:59 pm
by Jonah Bron
Maybe run a program to watch for HTTP requests and see what's being loading? Is IE running when that alert pops up?
Re: IE pop-up notice -- during boot! ???
Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 12:18 pm
by Bill H
I would do some research here. I strongly suspect you have a bug.
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/
And if you don't spot the issue post your question there. They have some real experts on issues like that.
Re: IE pop-up notice -- during boot! ???
Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 2:40 pm
by califdon
Thanks, Jonah and Bill. I'm still wrestling with this one. I will follow-up on that link, Bill, thanks. As far as I can tell, IE isn't running--first, this happens DURING the boot-up, and IE definitely isn't being started, since I rarely use it, only to check web page designs. Yesterday at our monthly Access User Group meeting, I got some clues from one of our members, who suggested that other processes during boot may be employing IE APIs to make Internet connections, such as antivirus definition updates or even checking for Windows updates, and that some of these might trigger such a pop-up from the API coding. But then I would expect this to be much more common and quickly recognized, which it doesn't seem to be. If I find a solution, or even an explanation, I'll post it here.
Re: IE pop-up notice -- during boot! ???
Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 8:37 am
by Bill H
There is a popular theft thing going where they popup saying you "may be infected" and send you to a site to sell you anti-virus software that isn't really anti-virus software. There are lots of variations on the theme and most people who fall into that think that the popup is a Microsoft warning. They are very convincing and I think some of them do, in fact, use the IE api's.
The guys at Virtual Doctor will walk you through using something called "Hijack This" that will provide highly detailed logs of everything that is on your computer that has been run or can be run. You post that log for them to read and they'll tell you what to remove.
This is a link to the instructions page that they give you for sending them the logs. I see they have replaced "Hijackthis" with a newer program. It looks unwieldy, but it flows smoothly and gets the job done. I've been through it on friend's computers, and those guys have never failed to solve the issue.
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showth ... p?t=167915
Hilariously, one time I was going through the procedure on my own computer and they could not find anything. We were all getting a little frustrated and it turned out to be a broken wire in my mouse cord.
Re: IE pop-up notice -- during boot! ???
Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 11:09 am
by califdon
Thanks again, Bill. Yesterday, on your advice, I registered with VirtualDr, read their FAQ, downloaded mbam_setup.exe (I assume this is the replacement software you referred to) and ran a Quick Scan. It found 8 questionable registry entries and nuked them, but when I rebooted, there was the same error pop-up again! Today's a busy day for me, but tomorrow I plan to run the Full Scan, then I'll be able to post the logs and ask my question there.
Funny one, about your broken wire problem. At least you had your computer plugged in!
Don
Re: IE pop-up notice -- during boot! ???
Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:54 pm
by Bill H
Did you ever get this resolved, Don?
Re: IE pop-up notice -- during boot! ???
Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 1:28 pm
by califdon
"Resolved"--not really. It seems to have stopped, but I can't tell what I did, if anything, to cause it to stop. I did run several other malware detection programs, but none reported that they had found anything that sounded remotely likely to be the cause (cookies, etc.). I also did a register cleaning, but again, the only things reported were the usual references to no-longer valid paths, etc. It's one of those things where, when it goes away, you hate to spend more time on it, and it's nearly impossible to do anything anyway, because it isn't repeating. Yukk!
Re: IE pop-up notice -- during boot! ???
Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 10:57 pm
by Jonah Bron
Reinstallation is the magical cure-all

I've gotten quite good at it myself.
Re: IE pop-up notice -- during boot! ???
Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 8:56 am
by Bill H
Sounds like the infamous case of taking your car to the mechanic when it's making a noise. "What noise? I don't hear no noise."
At least Virtual Doctor doesn't charge $75 to "not hear the noise."