Might also have something to do with Acrobat.
When you tried Firefox, did you use the integrated reader or an Acrobat plugin?
I have downloaded nothing into Firefox, just what ever came along with it is what I used. I tried videos and of course it wants to install a flash plugin. My system has Adobe Flash 11.xxxx now and Reader XI.xx.
I may have sucked in an adware malware of some kind because this morning Norton is popping up left and right saying it's removed a known adware popup program. It keeps reinstalling itself or trying to reinstall itself and Norton is catching it. This is the latest and greatest development ! I looked up the specs under more info, this thing is old ,dating back to between 2005 and 2009 origin and update dates.
Yes outin, I have cleaned browser history if that's what you mean, along with a bunch of old unused programs ?
Loyd, I've been running along happy and dumb with explorer for years, I did have a crash a few years ago ( fatal error blue screen crash on the computer but that was USB derived) which led to a reinstall of about everything, most of which was backed up on my external drive. At that point I also added a second internal hard drive. This system is pretty old now, it may be starting to have trouble keeping up with todays world of computing. However, my wife stole my laptop with windows 7 on it ( she is borrowing it, so far for a year), this is an older yet, XP system.
Edit:
Every time I make a move here at pianostreet my Norton flag comes up saying Opt_content (1) is being removed and is not safe or something to that effect. Every move, every message I view on, each response I make. I'm on Explorer today or at the moment anyway. I'll come back on Firefox and report back in. On each move though, my task bar says it's downloading something or other partner and then the Norton window pops in and has blocked that.
Edit:
Ok I'm back now on Firefox. No issues, running smoothly, no meassages.