Ever since I downloaded the latest adobe flash player, my laptop now plays commercials all the time even when I have all of my windows closed so nothing I have open that could possibly even have commercials are close. All I see is my desktop. Nothing is running and yet you can still hear bing commercials or other ones from other products. Not see anything but just hear it. They also continue even as my laptop is shutting down. The only way I have found to get rid of them is to uninstal flash player. Does anyone know any other way that I could get them to stop?
There is another topic with this same issue: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1024963
I have unfortunately no idea where this is coming from; I hope someone from Adobe can have a look at this.
It sounds like some type of malware. Do a google/bing search for --
hear commercials PC
-- and you'll see many references to this; some going back a few years.
It's important to note that IF this IS some type of malware, your regular virus scanner might not be able to detect anything. You would need something like Spybot Search and Destroy, or something more comprehensive that requires posting logs, etc., such as hijack-this.
As Pat noted in the linked post, assuming you use Windows, you should check your Task Manager to see what programs & processes are running in the background when you hear these commercials. If you see something you don't recognize, or something that seems to be taking up a lot of CPU resources (high percentage), write it down and do a web search.
Also, if you haven't done it recently, clean out all of your windows and Internet temporary files, cookies, etc. You might also want to look at Windows add/remove programs in your Control Panel to see if there is something to do with radio player, etc., that was recently installed.
Along this line, if you use Firefox, type about:addons in your address bar to see if there are any you don't recognize. Again, google anything that looks strange. The reason I brought this up is that I spotted a post on the Firefox Support forum, albeit a few years old, regarding a mysterious addon that a member had downloaded apparently just by visiting a site -- http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1740185&sid=5221065 b0053aab0be37ce6021983c70 (While you're at it, you might as well do the same for plugins by typing about:plugins in your address bar.)
Another option might be to simply use System Restore to go back a few days BEFORE you started hearing these commercials. (You'll have to reinstall anything that was installed after that date, but that might not be a bad thing.)
Last of all, you didn't state what site you downloaded Adobe Flash Player from. It's always best, if you download it manually, to get it from Adobe's Download Center -- http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ -- and not a third party distributor or vendor.
HTH,
Ortho_Fan
See also this topic http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1026896 - more indication, and some specifics, that malware is involved.
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