Update of Opera

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 11 Nov 2013 6:10 pm

I just updated my version of Opera, and now I'm getting various words (such as signatures) in this section and other words in the Steel Guitar Forum that are colored blue and have a double line under them. Passing the cursor on them shows they are advertisements for various things. If you click on them they take you to the site.

It seems that there is more and more advertising on the Internet to the point it is disgusting and sometimes hard to deal with. It is getting to the point that I'm wondering if it's time to hang up the Internet unless it's something worthy to find out in spite of the ads.

Am I the only one?

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 11 Nov 2013 7:07 pm

When you hover over it, does it give you a line that says something like, "ads by so and so"? I have had that happen a few times (never when updating a browser though) and what happens is, another program gets installed that spams you with ads. Every time it has happened to me, there is a program with the name of the "ads by" name in the Add or Remove programs section of control panel. Look there to see if there is a program installed with the same name and uninstall it. This has always worked for me.

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 11 Nov 2013 9:31 pm

I haven't found that particular verb-age yet but I think that is the problem. I will keep looking, and thanks.
Ken

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 11 Nov 2013 10:59 pm

Ken;
Try disabling toolbars and add-ons/extensions, one at a time. Eventually, you'll disable the one responsible for the text link ads.

Your last option would be to selectively disable JavaScript support for those pages. Maybe there is an add-on for Opera that lets you choose whether to allow active scripting to run on a given website. I use NoScript in all my Firefox browsers, because it is enabled by default and blocks JavaScript, Java, and various cross-site scripting attacks.

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 12 Nov 2013 9:26 am

Wiz. The new Opera 17.xxx doesn't have a lot of that stuff it used to have. It doesn't even have bookmarks. Good thing I saved most of them to use between this computer and the one in New York.

I took my computer back about 3 days and eliminated a couple of programs and the problem seems to be gone.

This computer here is a windows 7 professional and has an x86 component to take old programs. That may be trouble in April of next year for on line stuff.

I think I'll get a new laptop for on line stuff and leave these old ones to just work local programs.

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 23 Nov 2013 6:17 am

I tried the new version of opera, didn't like it, as Ken said, no favorites, went back to an older version.

Bill

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 23 Nov 2013 8:09 am

I now have both Opera 18 and Opera 12. I put Opera 12 back on to get my bookmarks. They would still open in opera 12, but I put them in an HTML file so I could find them. When I get a new computer I can at least know what they are.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 23 Nov 2013 8:15 am

Ken Lang wrote:Wiz. The new Opera 17.xxx doesn't have a lot of that stuff it used to have. It doesn't even have bookmarks. Good thing I saved most of them to use between this computer and the one in New York.

I took my computer back about 3 days and eliminated a couple of programs and the problem seems to be gone.

This computer here is a windows 7 professional and has an x86 component to take old programs. That may be trouble in April of next year for on line stuff.

I think I'll get a new laptop for on line stuff and leave these old ones to just work local programs.

Glad you got rid of the contextual text ads. They can usually be uninstalled via Control Panel, or with an adware removal tool.

If you are running XP Professional as a virtual machine inside Windows 7 Pro, it will need to remain protected with anti-malware software that continues to support XP. This leaves out Microsoft Security Essentials. However, Malwarebytes and some other security companies will continue to support that OS for quite a while.

Better yet, don't browse the Internet while using the XP virtual machine for your programs. Make sure that you aren't running exploitable third party software, like Java, unless it is required by some application. Further, you can degrade your user privileges to Limited User, after creating a separate Administrator level account in the XP-VM.

Of course, keep your host OS well protected and always updated.

Dave Potter · Post by **Dave Potter** » 23 Nov 2013 11:49 am

Ken Lang wrote:I just updated my version of Opera, and now I'm getting various words (such as signatures) in this section and other words in the Steel Guitar Forum that are colored blue and have a double line under them. Passing the cursor on them shows they are advertisements for various things. If you click on them they take you to the site.

It seems that there is more and more advertising on the Internet to the point it is disgusting and sometimes hard to deal with. It is getting to the point that I'm wondering if it's time to hang up the Internet unless it's something worthy to find out in spite of the ads.

Am I the only one?

I'm not familiar with Opera, but if I were experiencing advertising links on this forum, I'd be every bit as flabbergasted as you are. And I'd want to fix it. Life's too short for annoyances like that. I use Firefox, and I definitely don't see what you've described on this forum. One reason could be that different browsers display certain things differently.

However, I'm also using a browser add-on called AdBlock Plus, which is available for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Android devices, and which I heard of through our own b0b. The link I provided will take you to its homepage. I've been using it for years, and it's quite capable of dealing with unwanted advertising on web pages, as well as other useful things, such as disabling the social media buttons (facebook, twitter, etc) which, even if you don't click one, can send a request to the servers of the social network which can use that information to create a profile based on your browsing habits. Although this is commonplace these days, I don't have an appetite for it. I find such tactics intrusive and deceitful. I use whatever is available to defeat them - I have no use for "social media", which serves the theme of "it's all about me". It's not.

It can do a lot of other useful things in the way of blocking unwanted web content, but that's enough for now. Happy browsing.

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