This is a recent problem I have encountered. I am running IE6 WinXP Home.

Lately, if I go to a website and say, click on a search button with my cursor, where I click the cursor will automatically print out in small blue letters the word "MARK" (w/o quotes of course). This does NOT prevent me from com-pleting what I am doing on the search box but is very annoying.

I strongly suspect this is a spyware/bug/virus issue that I have picked up.

I have run Ad Aware and SearchBot Destroy but they haven't been able to remove it!

Does anyone know specifically what this is and what program/application (preferably free) will remove it?

Appreciate ANY ideas/suggestions
HeadRanger George in SF

Hi George

Try Microsoft's anti-spyware. You can find it at:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Great suggestion. I have wanted to try out the new MS AV Program so I will do that this evening. Appreciate your time,
HeadRanger George

Hi,
Searching Google and other search engines showed nothing about Mark.
If you are curious about it, you could search your Registry, not making any changes.
If you wish to try, be careful, and don't delete anything. You could possible find out what it is by looking at the Value or Name of it, if you find it.
Go to Start/Run , then type in REGEDIT , and click on OK.
At the top of the Registry window, click on Edit, then Find.
In the space, type in mark , then put a checkmark by "Match whole string only", and click on Find Next button.
If it finds the word mark, it will stop. You can click on a folder on the left hand side, and it will show what is in that folder on the right hand side.
Then, press F3 at the top of the keyboard to continue the search.
A popup window will tell you when the search is finished.
Click on File, Exit, at the top to return to the desktop.

Best wishes,
fredg

Be VERY careful about following Fred's advise. The word Mark could easliy be part of a valid entry.

I had also googled it trying "Mark spyware", "Mark Adware", "Mark Virus" and some other variations I don't recall and couldn't find anything.

This doesn't really sound like spyware to me. Spyware normally has more malicious purposes. This sounds more like an accesiblity helper to me. Something to help the visually impared to see where they have clicked etc. Just something to think about. I'll see if I can find anything on that.

All good advice... Thanks so much
It is more of an irritant... Hopefully
I will find a (safe) way to make it go away

George

Maybe it's a feature of some other software you installed? Have you installed anything on the computer before this started happening? What are some of the new programs on the computer? Is the word clickable or does it react in any sort of way when you hover over it? Does it only work on search boxes or all web buttons? If you go to google.com or Yahoo.com does it appear on both of their respective buttons?

Thanks

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Any reason the post above got a negative rating? Answers to those questions can help solve the problem. None of those questions were off topic.

Try disabling autocomplete for forms. That function is in internet options, content.