A few days ago, an app asked for permission to be added to my computer. It looked genuine and seemed to come from Chrome... Well, it didn't. All of a sudden, I had pop-ups all over the place. Ugh!
I looked all over and did a little google searching (amidst pop-ups) to try and figure out how to get rid of them. I checked my chrome settings, my internet settings, and ran an anti-virus scan.
Nada. Still Pop-Ups!
So, I went into Norton AntiVirus and went to support. On the Norton website, I was prompted to download the Norton Power Eraser and uninstall unwanted programs. It found it! It was an adware/malware program called Stormwatch. Nope. I don't want it. I really don't want it! A click of a button and it was gone. Yay! No more pop-ups. It was the stormwatch ad that was able to override google Chrome's setting to block pop-up ads.
Then, today...
Flash Player opened a tab on me asking for me to update the outdated of their player on my program... hmmm... So, first, I googled what they were asking to include... It was something by conduit that would change my homepage. Didn't sound good. So, I declined it. Then, another app that was being included came up... Stormwatch... Stormwatch!!! Nope. Definitely don't want it. Then two more came up after I declined the others. I closed the whole tab and didn't do the update. Hopefully, if my flash player really needs to be updated down the line, the company will actually just sent out an update for-- flash player!
I wanted to share this story to let everyone know about what these updates are trying to sneak onto your computer. I knew that a lot of programs try to sneak McAfee onto your computer (Adobe being one of them) which is bad. If you download a second anti-virus program onto your computer and you already have one, they will fight against each other, slow down your computer and potentially cause it to freeze up.
I am no longer going to just say yes to a program update. I always opt for the notify me option before my computer updates itself or programs update themselves instead of giving blanket permission..
Post Script...
It's been a few weeks since this has happened and I've had to be vigilant. I learned that what looked like the flash player update was not from them. It was just a very good imitation. It has popped up again since then and I've had to erase unwanted programs. I have to be very careful about where I search and click on the internet. My husband and I've made the decision to switch me to a mac the next time my computer breaks. We had such a horrible experience with my children's Dell laptop and my Dell desktop is finicky. For now, I'm thankful we have computers that work, but I'm very aware that technology does not just make our lives easier. It also makes it more stressful in many ways. I prefer tangible books. I'm going to stick with them as much and as long as I can!
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