Lycos

A couple of days ago, I finally gave in and downloaded the newest version of Yahoo Messenger. Unfortunately, I didn't expect other things to come along with it. . .

Now, whenever I open up a new window, a little sidebar for the Lycos search engine pops up and shows results for related sites I was never looking for to begin with. Outside of that, the damn thing will create makeshift links from certain words on any page (as an example, the word "ambidextrous" in the poll on my Lefty vs. Righty thread was made into one of these links).

I want it gone and dead. DEAD, I SAY. Any suggestions?

Sounds like spyware. Maybe uninstall YM and see if that gets rid of it. If it does, maybe you can reinstall YM and check for a fine-print option that stops that Lycos thing from being installed. If you have to have the Lycos garbage to use YM, you could always use http://gaim.sourceforge.net instead.

I was thinking that, but I wasn't sure. Even in this thread, when I mentioned ambidextrous again, it provided a link to find a definition for the word from Merriam-Webster, a TopText Link.

I just uninstalled YM, though, and it's still there. I'll keep plugging at it, though, to get it away.

Get adaware, maybe that will get rid of the lycos thing.

Yeah, get AdAware or Spybot Search & Destroy - sounds like you somehow installed the spyware Ezula/TopText, I didn't know that came with YM though.

Well, it started showing up right after I installed the newest version of YM, so it was kind of an assumption. . .

Anyway, is the link to Adaware in the FAQs?

Or you could just do this:

Go into Tools (once your browser is opened)
Click on Internet options
Click on View Objects
Delete the Lycos Software that automatically downloaded.

I just deleted something similar that happened to me and now its gone.

You may want to delete your cookies and the temporary files, clears up lots of problems for me.

It'd be nice if all spyware was that easy to remove though, although I won't deny it might work for some sorts :p For others, yeah, you'll need aforementioned spyware removers, or if you know what you're doing, you can go purge the HD and registry yourself (which I had to do for one nasty bit of spyware called the My Search toolbar which so many people seem to think is ever so nice for some strange reason).