My computer search keeps redirecting me to Bing???

[Krieger]

I have been having an issue with the local hard drive search engine on my laptop. Every time I try to locate a file on my hard drive using the my computer search in local disk C, I keep getting redirected to Bing through my default browser which is google chrome when I'm actually trying to locate documents on my hard drive. Can anyone help?

I have installed utorrent and imgburn a week ago to convert some movies to DVD. The problem seems to have started around that time. This was a red flag of potential adware that found it's way on my local hard drive. I'm usually good at avoiding freeware which always lead to adware infections like fake antivirus software and browser hijackers. Another red flag was the fact that the Bing results are similar to what I did a local disk search for but less relevant and more add like most of the time.

This should be taken as a serious problem at Microsoft and they should find a fix in the next update of windows 7 and other currently supported versions of windows still venerable to adware infections. It's not exactly a security threat but it may as well be if basic offline utilities get effected that way so easily by adware. I usually don't trust 3rd party software but imgburn and utorrent are pretty reputable and work well if you know how to dodge the freeware junk. I ran Adw Remover and it couldn't find any adware or anything. Microsoft really should treat adware and malware as big of a threat as viruses and do what they can to build up more protection against it.

 

[Darren]

You can't blame Microsoft for this in anyway whatsoever. Windows 7 is still my primary operating system on my main machine and I've been using it for nearly 4 years with no viruses whatsoever. Download Malwarebytes and run that as well as Avast or whatever antivirus you normally use. John will probably swoop in with a better approach as he's the master at this stuff.

uTorrent itself is typically pretty safe but whatever software acquired using it is most likely your issue. I don't know much about imgburn but it's a free software which means you used uTorrent for something else that probably wasn't. That's what your issue is most likely coming from. What did you acquire with uTorrent? Also piracy is frowned upon here so tread carefully with that. We won't help you get anything on a torrent software but we can help remove any issues you may have caused yourself from using it.

 

[Krieger]

You can't blame Microsoft for this in anyway whatsoever. Windows 7 is still my primary operating system on my main machine and I've been using it for nearly 4 years with no viruses whatsoever. Download Malwarebytes and run that as well as Avast or whatever antivirus you normally use. John will probably swoop in with a better approach as he's the master at this stuff.

uTorrent itself is typically pretty safe but whatever software acquired using it is most likely your issue. I don't know much about imgburn but it's a free software which means you used uTorrent for something else that probably wasn't. That's what your issue is most likely coming from. What did you acquire with uTorrent? Also piracy is frowned upon here so tread carefully with that. We won't help you get anything on a torrent software but we can help remove any issues you may have caused yourself from using it.

I only got utorrent and imgburn along with adw remover for my 3rd party 'free' software. I also did the usual to avoid freeware when I downloaded all of them. This seems like something that snuck in during the download of one of those software products and I cant for the life of me find it or any setting that got fiddled with.

I don't promote piracy myself. I buy official licensed versions of all my DVD's. I got utorrent to convert Harmy's Star Wars 4-6 despecialized but I did buy the latest official licensed copy of that trilogy before getting the unaltered.

 

[Darren]

So you were using uTorrent strictly as a file converter? Don't get me wrong, do as you do, just trying to understand what it was installed for. uTorrent itself can open you up to some security risks given the nature of how it works.

I know what you mean about those installs, they can get really sneaky and I've had issues a few times. Where did you download those programs from? I'll send John a PM and see if he can help you out since I'm out of my element with stuff like this. For now gives this a read.

http://www.computerforum.com/224967-please-read-before-requesting-malware-removal-help.html

 

[johnb35]

Yeah, run all 4 programs in that link Darren posted and then post the logs in your next reply.

 

[Agent Smith]

You most likely have installed crap from what you downloaded. Probably from IMGburn. You should use IMGburn portable. Once you get this straitened, instead of using the Windows search check out Everything.exe which is a lot better. Then turn off indexing from your hard drive properties for a small speed performance boost. http://www.voidtools.com/downloads/

Superantispyware may help.

How to get rid of ADs in uTorrent. http://lifehacker.com/disable-ads-in-utorrent-via-settings-826283231

Be advised the latest uTorrent carriers with it its own bitcoin miner that works on your CPU and uTorrent gets the profit. I think there may be an option to turn it off. I use an older version of uTorrent.

 

[Krieger]

Thanks everyone. I'll try those suggestions and see how things turn out.

Viruses may be a thing of the past for personal computers but looks like adware here to stay for free 3rd party software. Does a Mac PC have better protection against malware as well as top notch virus protection? I hear lots of good things about Mac's Panther OS But are they better than Windows in security like everyone seems to claim?

I know this issue isn't really a huge problem because everything else on my laptop seems to work just fine so far with pretty much no other issues but the one I'm dealing with. Just makes it more frustrating and a little dissconcerning locating files in my hard drive when I get sent to the internet instead.

 

[beers]

Viruses may be a thing of the past for personal computers

Ummm.. hang around a PC shop for an hour or so and you may find a different result.

Does a Mac PC have better protection against malware as well as top notch virus protection?

Windows malware doesn't run on OSX. There is still some Mac malware but it's a lot less common than Windows based ones.

 

[Krieger]

You most likely have installed crap from what you downloaded. Probably from IMGburn. You should use IMGburn portable. Once you get this straitened, instead of using the Windows search check out Everything.exe which is a lot better. Then turn off indexing from your hard drive properties for a small speed performance boost. http://www.voidtools.com/downloads/

Superantispyware may help.

How to get rid of ADs in uTorrent. http://lifehacker.com/disable-ads-in-utorrent-via-settings-826283231

Be advised the latest uTorrent carriers with it its own bitcoin miner that works on your CPU and uTorrent gets the profit. I think there may be an option to turn it off. I use an older version of uTorrent.

Thanks Agent Smith. I gave Search Everything a try and I like it allot more than the My Computer search. Everything displays things nicely and it shows what I look for instead of redirecting me to Bing every time.