How to disable "hot words" in IE6 on Win XP?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Grahammer
  • Start date Start date
G

Grahammer

I don't know how and a I don't know when, but IE has started randomly
choosing words to underline and offer as a hyperlink. Checking the source of
the page shows that these words are NOT meant to be linked anyplace.

Why is this happening?

How did it get installed?

What is Microsofts "official" term for this junk?

....and most importantly... How do I get rid of this crap!!!!!!!
 
It's acutally "Alexa" and is installed by MICROSOFT through their updates.

AdAware found it.
 
It's acutally "Alexa" and is installed by MICROSOFT through their updates.

AdAware found it. Once installed, the feature went away.

And to make it worse, the "What's related" feature has come back on by
itself. This time AdAware didn't find anything! There is no Alexa entry in
the registry.

From what I can tell, there SHOULD be an option under the Tools menu to turn
this off, but I don't see it.

WHY does Microsoft do this crap (Yes it IS built into IE)

HOW do I get rid of it PERMANENTLY?
 
It's not alexa.

Did you install smart tags on an Office XP/2003 installation?

Other spyware components can also do this.
Aside from this, some websites also do this on their end.
 
Jason Tsang said:
It's not alexa.

Did you install smart tags on an Office XP/2003 installation?

Other spyware components can also do this.
Aside from this, some websites also do this on their end.

Fine... but how do I get it OUT of IE. It's not a third party app...
Searched very vigorously for one and it isn't there. Since this IS something
that Microsoft includes, how do I make sure it stays off?
 
Well... I finally figured out what kind of crap was causing the advertising
links to mysteriously appear in webpages. It's something called "Intellitxt"
from the slime at Vibrant Media.

If you value you privacy and want to avoid yet another security risk add the
following line to your HOSTS file. You can usually find this file at
C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc. Just open notepad and drag the HOSTS file
into the notepad and add the line:

127.0.0.1 itxt.vibrantmedia.com #Block that stupid Intellitxt from Vibrant
Media

(you can also use 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1)

If you want to see a sample, visit the following site. If you're being
watched you will see "computer" and "PC" and "video card" underlined. Moving
the mouse over these links will pop up a little advertising blurb.

http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/How_To/Making_a_Blowhole/1

For more info, use Google and search for Intellitxt.

Hope this helps someone!
 
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