how do you stop your pc from being redirected from one site that you want to one that you don't want. Please don't get to techie as I am not that up to speed on pc language/ commands. And also stopping pop-ups ? Thank you, Tom Burke

• Moved by Danny van DamMVP Monday, January 05, 2015 10:55 AM not related to training and certification

Hello Tom Burke,

What redirection do you mean?

Do you mean that the Internet Explorer website redirection?

If yes, please share us the website link for better analyzation.

The pop-up redirection may be caused by add-ons. Please check if you have install the suspected add-ons.
Please try to use reset Internet Explorer for troubleshooting.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923737

Best regards,
Fangzhou CHEN

You may already have malware on your system, given what you described, and you'll want to deal with that first.  I'd suggest a 3rd party anti-malware solution, such as Malware Bytes Antimalware, and also running a good antivirus tool such as Kaspersky.

But beyond that, to answer your question on making internet use safer and more pleasant in the long term...  Here's a solution with no downside that will have your computer avoid almost all the malware online, as well as the ads:

Visit the MVPS hosts site, download the hosts file, and replace your existing (template) hosts file in this folder: 

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

What this does is locally resolve some tens of thousands of named web sites deemed to be "parasites" to the local address 0.0.0.0, which of course fails to deliver whatever bad things would have come from those pages.  It's HIGHLY effective.

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

The author actively keeps the file up to date and releases a new version every month or two, so after you install it, check back now and again.  Not only are you getting one of the best ways of protecting yourself from the worst of the internet, but it's also well maintained.

This is perhaps the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself from online malware.

 

You may already have malware on your system, given what you described, and you'll want to deal with that first.  I'd suggest a 3rd party anti-malware solution, such as Malware Bytes Antimalware, and also running a good antivirus tool such as Kaspersky.

But beyond that, to answer your question on making internet use safer and more pleasant in the long term...  Here's a solution with no downside that will have your computer avoid almost all the malware online, as well as the ads:

Visit the MVPS hosts site, download the hosts file, and replace your existing (template) hosts file in this folder: 

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

What this does is locally resolve some tens of thousands of named web sites deemed to be "parasites" to the local address 0.0.0.0, which of course fails to deliver whatever bad things would have come from those pages.  It's HIGHLY effective.

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

The author actively keeps the file up to date and releases a new version every month or two, so after you install it, check back now and again.  Not only are you getting one of the best ways of protecting yourself from the worst of the internet, but it's also well maintained.

This is perhaps the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself from online malware.