Is someone taking screen shots of my computer?

purplelover said:

simrick, so you are saying I cold use Google Chrome to go to Aol and login see my email AND surf and do my favorite places OR juat uae for email???

You can use a normal browser, access your email, import your AOL favorites, and do all your online stuff in a normal browser and get rid of AOL browser completely.
3 Ways to Transfer AOL Favorites - wikiHow
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purplelover said:

AOL lets you store 2500 favorite places. If I can't use them anymore how would I transfer them and to where?? I have over 1000 favorite places.

See link above.

purplelover said:

I do have our cable account EMAIL I could use... It is just that I would have to change my email address with all my friends , family, AND the ever important ONLINE credit cards and places I shop.
So is there any place that has a good mail system, favorite places AND browser in one place??? Please let me know what you all recommend.

Not making any big changes for now...

Please pick a browser - FireFox comes to mind.
Import your AOL favorites to it.
Use it to access your AOL email, your favorites and all other browsing.
That's all you need.

Here are instructions for exporting from AOL Browser and importing into FireFox.
Importing AOL Favorite Places to Bookmarks mozillaZine Forums

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1. Save your AOL favorites. In your AOL interface, go to Favorites > Favorite Places > Save/Replace. This will save your AOL favorites to a .pfc file. Remember where you saved this.
2. Go to LinkaGoGo. Make sure that the input is AOL PFC and the output is Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox.
3. Click the "Browse" button and find the .pfc file you saved earlier.
4. Click on the "Convert" button. You should be prompted to save the bookmarks.html file. Remember where you saved this, as well.
5. Open Firefox's Bookmark Manager (Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks)
6. From the File menu, choose Import. Then find the bookmarks file you just saved.

You can get FireFox here:
Download Firefox — Free Web Browser — Mozilla

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@purplelover

Eileen, everything simrick has said is very doable, correct and a good course of action for you.

Let me try to explain and help in a non-technical way.....

Let's separate how you get to the Internet with what you're going to do when you get there.

You have a computer (your house).
You have a browser (your car).
You want to go shopping (go to the Mall, food store, bank, Post Office).

You grab your keys, walk out of the house, get in the car and start it (run the browser).
You look at the maps and directions on a sticky note stuck to your mirror (favorites names and addresses).
You pick one and tell the car (browser) to take you there (it knows where it is).

You do your shopping, banking, get some milk and bread, mail some bills and pick up the new mail, then go back home (close the browser).

3 separate things. Your computer, your browser, your favorites/places/things to do.

Your HP Envy, Firefox/Chrome/Edge browser, your favorites/places/things to do.

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You don't have to give up your AOL mail account and favorites. You can drop them as a browser and still have all you have now (without any AOL software directly installed on your computer).

I have a Dell computer, use Firefox and Chrome, and E-Mail accounts with Gmail, Hotmail, and my ISP Verizon. All accessed just the way I described.

In your mind, keep them separate, because they are.

TC

purplelover said:

tomcat... I get it! I get it! I just needed it dumbed down a bit. Thanks!

Had to make an unexpected trip to the hospital today, I will be down a few days but will get this Viewpoint and Aol mess taken care of thanks to you and simrick and everyone else that has helped me. So greatful for EVERYONE'S patience!

Eileen​

Good luck, Eileen. Take your time and get as healthy as possible before you dive in. You'll be able to concentrate better. :)

purplelover said:

O.K. I am a bit scared. I am still on AOL. Lately I have been on a webpage and I notice a clear square shaped box with a black frame on it. It flashes like a picture being taken. Is this even possible?

I have run CCleaner, Windows Defender, Trial version of Maleware Bytes (any chance of getting a real copy). They all say there are no virus' everything is fine.

What can I do? to get of this creep? I doubt AOL could help me
Thanks so much for any advice.
Eileen

I have a small command prompt screen that flashes on the taskbar when starting my browser, I am not sure what it means, but I see no questions or error messages. I see you said it flashes, ok where is at on the screen?

purplelover said:

simrick and tomcat,

feeling some better. I ran ADWCleaner tonight and expanded the registery. Low and behold there were 2 viewpoint files and one viewpoint files in the folders. I deleted everything but those 3 files I checked. Ran cleaner and the report said

[!] Folder not deleted: C:\ProgramData\Viewpoint

[!] Folder not deleted: C:\ProgramData\Application Data\Viewpoint

Why didn't it delete them? I am still getting the screenshots...

Eileen, somewhere in the posts above, either Simrick or TC explained how to get rid of View Point permanently. I'll go looking for it.

OK, I found it:

AOL's Forced Installation of Viewpoint Spyware CAN Be Prevented - Thoughts, Rants & Raves, and Useful Info

Here's the text; note the red font toward the end of the article:

AOL's Forced Installation of Viewpoint Spyware CAN Be Prevented

As computing.net has reported: "Both AOL's internet software and the AOL Instant Messenger program (AIM) are force installing unwanted software called Viewpoint Media Player on people's computers." http://www.computing.net/security/wwwboard/forum/9665.html


Antispyware programs like Xoftspy, PestPatrol, Spysweeper, Spyware Doctor and Spybot can detect and remove Viewpoint, however AOL reinstalls it EVERY TIME you open AOL if it's found missing!


AOL has incorporated Viewpoint into it's AIM and Superbuddy features, and considers it integral to AOL "functioning properly". Therefore, even if your antispyware is able to detect and remove all vestages of Viewpoint, AOL will reinstall it the very next time you log on!
According to Paretologic, makers of Xoftspy antispyware software, Viewpoint is not only spyware, but it can slow your system down due to it's hogging of processor cycles and memory.


http://labs.paretologic.com/spyware....oint%20Toolbar "Viewpoint tracks user information, installs without notice, uses immense system resources."


AOL DOES have a way to prevent this, though; but they are SURE keeping it a secret. In fact, the process CAN'T be found unless you know about it! Hence the reason for this article! EVERY AOL user should know about this.


Open AOL and go to "help" on the toolbar. Select "About AOL". Next is the SECRET STEP. You must then press "CTRL+D" to access a "secret" panel to disable all of the desktop and IM fancy features that are associated with viewpoint. This is the only way to prevent AOL from re-installing Viewpoint at AOL startup.


Most users will find their system performance improves once they have removed viewpoint.



Related Reading: http://www.spywaredaily.com/2005/03/spyware.html What is spyware?