Need some help with something I just found on my computer...

[teachermom2834]

I am not computer smart so bear with me here...

 

I got an email with an invitation to a birthday party for one of ds's friends. (it was sent to multiple people). The email was text with cute little pictures of a cake and a gift stuck in (something I don't know how to do :)

 

There were also attachments listed at the top that looked like they were for the pictures. I clicked on one just to see if it was some other information about the party. What I got when I clicked on the attachment was a Microsoft Office document page that had the little picture of the cake. There was a space at the bottom with arrows to look at the next picture so for some reason I just clicked on that to see what else was there. Well, I got some very disturbing pictures! I would assume these came from the sender's computer but there were pictures on there that were familiar to me (like baby gates I had been researching and even an avatar from this board!)

 

So, would someone computer savvy please tell me where these images in Microsoft Office are coming from? Dh rarely uses this computer and dc are too young. I would like to just assume they were from the files of the person who sent the email but obviously some of them were from my computer. If this is dh- then we are going to have some serious issues- but I need to know. I certainly want to know where they came from before I confront him.

 

This would be very out of character for dh. We've been together 15 years and I've never seen any signs of interest in this sort of thing but I don't have my head in the sand and I know it's possible. Dh is pretty much an open book though- I don't know when he'd do this or why on my computer.

 

Thanks,

Marie

[girligirlmom]

These may be files on your computer from websites that have been viewed on your computer.

 

When you open a picture it is stored in a temporary section on your computer. Unless this person sent this to you in a message and it is still attached, it is not from the person who sent it to you, but more likely from your previous viewing. Any picture that you open while browsing the Internet will get stored in this temporary section.

 

Once you open the attached picture, try to save it. Write down the name of the directory where your computer tries to store it. You'll have to figure out the full name of the temp directory. Next you want to use Explorer to go to that directory on your computer and see if you can see those pictures. See if they have dates so you know about when they appeared.

 

Another you can do is check the history on your browser(s) to see if anything matches the time on these photos. Many times histories are cleared by people who know enough. We run Mozilla, Internet Explorer and Opera so we have 3 browsers but most people run just one or at most 2.

 

It could simply be something someone stumbled upon by accident. Anything you view may be saved in this temporary section. I have searched on certain keywords for something related to homeschool and found some very disturbing pictures myself, and those that I viewed would be in my temporary section. I deleted them once I realized this.

 

We now run K9 software that requires a password to go to questionable sites. This has been a great warning to me so I can decided if I want to venture to the site or not since it might have nothing to do with my search.

 

I'm not sure that the ones you are looking at are here but it's a start(see quote). I think they are in another place but I'm trying to find that place right now. My computer defaults the location of attached pictures to the My pictures section under My Documents. IF you can find the baby gate pictures then the others should be in the same directory.

 

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070305094700AA2jeJT

For most computers its different but there's a way to reach them without having to find the exact folder.

 

1.) Go to START>ALL PROGRAMS> ACCESSORIES> SYSTEM TOOLS> and click on "disk clean up"

 

*Note: don't worry were not going to delete them.

 

2.) Allow some time for the clen up to load

 

3.) Click on "temporary internet files" then "view files"

 

4.) Browse these folders until you have found what you where looking for

 

Optional: while your here clean up the other files, realy helps speeding up your computer and freeing up memory.

Edited November 12, 2008 by girligirlmom

[TraceyS/FL]

Sounds like someone - you or the sender - has some virus/malware/spyware kind of stuff.

 

I can't help you much with that at all - this is what a PC using IT friend recomended last week to another friend.

 

Is it really a virus? Or is it some other form of malware? And I agree with Tracey, never click on whatever they offer. Kaspersky makes the #1 rated Anti-Virus program.

 

Other Malware I always go with these three:

 

Lavasoft's Ad-Aware

Windows Defender

Spybot - Search & Destroy

 

All of those are available for free, if you get prompted to pay for Ad-Aware, keep hunting for the link to download the Free personal version.

 

Link to the free Kasperkey online scan:

http://usa.kaspersky.com/products_services/free-virus-scanner.php

 

And finally here when she needed more help:

You can try the Tom Coyote forums -they were very helpful to me, except for the time they got slammed with people who needed help, and then the wait was a little too long for me. But if you can get help, they are very good about walking you through the steps. Do not just surf the forums, though, and try out stuff that they suggest -they customize their responses to your exact situation.

 

http://forums.whatthetech.com/forums.html

 

Good luck!!

[KidsHappen]

I am not an expert but on my computer, those are pictures that were viewed on my computer. My hubby works in computer and my brother is very good with PCs so I will ask both of them later. But my first guess is that these pictures are ones that were previously viewed on your computer. Is there anyone else in your household who could have viewed them? Honestly, you can be surprised about who can be responsible for these kinds of things. I have honestly had these thing pop up without any warning and from what seemed like totally innocent sites. I have never actually received one in an email or from a virus. However, you can get virus from visiting sites like these. Good luck with solving this mystery.

[Heather in Savannah]

my dd and I are the only ones with the password. Even dh has asked that he not be given the password....one less temptation in life. Every time someone hits a site that you have prohibited the dog barks....you can hear it!

[girligirlmom]

Every time someone hits a site that you have prohibited the dog barks....you can hear it!

Unless someone turns that feature off or turns down the volume...

[gardening momma]

I am not an expert but on my computer, those are pictures that were viewed on my computer. My hubby works in computer and my brother is very good with PCs so I will ask both of them later. But my first guess is that these pictures are ones that were previously viewed on your computer.

:iagree: It's not a virus. There are other programs on your computer that, when viewing a picture, will let you click the next button to see more pictures available for viewing from your computer.

[teachermom2834]

Okay- I clicked on "picture properties" for one of the pictures and it says "date modified 11/12/08" with a time of 8:30 am. I have been the only one home today.

 

I called dh and told him to be prepared to hash this out tonight. He immediately said they are from our computer ( he volunteered this and he knows that I don't know about computers) but said he doesn't know how they got there or what I am talking about.

 

He said maybe they are images on pop ups that have been blocked. Is that at all plausible? There are also some innocent images on there of ads that I don't think I've ever seen.

 

Hmmm, this will be the topic after dc are in bed tonight...I obviously don't want to believe this is him but I'm not really one for denial, either.

 

Thanks, everyone.

Marie

[KidsHappen]

After talking to my hubby, he said that they could have come from anywhere. Like you said, you can look at properties and that when tell you when they were put on your computer. You can also look at the location where the picture was stored. From what I can tell, if it is in a temp internet file from today and you are the only one that used the computer today then you can safely assume that your dh is not responsible for it. I recognize most of the ones in my files as ones that either my children or myself viewed on my computer but others appear to be standard clip art type pictures. But some appear to be pics that were sent to me in emails. I will also ask my brother later for more clarification.

[KidsHappen]

I have everyone's avatar from this board in my files, plus just about every picture ever viewed on my computer. This is probably taking up tons of space on my computer. And so far, I can only see how to delete them one at a time. I don't have all day to devote to this.

[TraceyS/FL]

I have everyone's avatar from this board in my files, plus just about every picture ever viewed on my computer. This is probably taking up tons of space on my computer. And so far, I can only see how to delete them one at a time. I don't have all day to devote to this.

 

there should be a place to set how big you want your tempoary cache to be, and if you want it to save anything.

 

Check the IE/browser properties - and then that ______ spot. Gee, it's been so long sinc ei used XP everyday i just can't be of more help.

 

The only thing worse - my mom just asked me what my password was on a computer from work that i haven't used in, oh, 7 years. Sure mom - either XYZ or i dunno!