WEBSHOTS Snafu on WIN8

[jimmyj68]

My dear 96 year old mother-in-law trashed her vista computer some way or another and went out and bought an HP Desktop with WIN8. After the initial issues with WIN8 for folks raised on previous windows versions, things seemed to be going OK.

A day or two ago she called me (mother-in-law lives across the street) complaining that her computer started flashing (not off an on, but it seems between the desktop and probably a screen saver I discovered after going across the street). I initially advised her to just turn the computer off, go read for a while and then come back to it.

This HP desktop doesn't have a standard power supply but has a brick that plugs into a socket (round brick connector plug), so you can't turn it off completely without removing the brick connector. I went across the street to do that for her and in viewing her screen constantly switching between pages she told me that she was trying to download something called WEBSHOTS and the screen started blinking back and forth. Turns out, WEBSHOTS is asking for trouble if you download it. A bunch of pictures for desktop backgrounds and screen savers.


The real problem is the constant screen switching goes so rapidly you can't get into any other program or WIN8 control to delete WEBSHOTS. The standard Metro start page is stable, but if you click on anything the system immediately reverts to switching back and forth.

You can't mouse click fast enough to get into control panel using the right side popup, and if you are fast enough to use key strokes to get control panel, then programs and features and attempt to uninstall WEBSHOTS, the uninstall never completes because everything starts blinking again.

Any ideas how to fix a program glitch that won't hold still?

 

[Dahak]

Boot into safe mode(F8 before Windows Logo) and either change the settings or uninstall it

 

[jimmyj68]

Thanks for that good advice! The glitter of WIN8 made me forget about the old standby fixes in windows - F8 -safe mode.

Only one problem - I was never fast enough to get F8 in time. Trying to tap the key rapidly after turning on the system never caught safe mode - - - - holding down F8 wouldn't do it either. Hope I didn't miss something that would have helped that problem.

Oddly, the blinking would stop if you went online/activated IE (well it didn't stop but it was in the background when an online page was on top), so finally decided that though she might lose a few of her added "apps", I would open IE. Mouse to the upper right hand corner and open that box, go to change PC Settings and run a windows refresh. This would reinstall WIN8 with the loss of some apps but no files and some of the removed apps saved in a desktop folder called removed apps could be reinstalled. Ran a PC refresh and WEBshots was gone by the wayside - kaput - system stable and optimally operating like WIN8 should. Reinstalled her favorite apps and all was well. Well not everything. Because we opted out of a Microsoft account and using Hotmail, I downloaded and used Windows Live Mail. After the refresh we had to reinstall Live Mail and it presented problems that took some finagling to correct. Comcast helped her get it together. Props to the guy she talked to - he walked her through everything she needed to do.

 

[Hero1711]

On Windows 8, if you want to use F8 to boot into safe mode, you need to change bootmenupolicy to Legacy in the boot loader. Or you can use other methods:
1. Hold Shift + click on Restart.
2. msconfig.

 

[Ketchup]

I would download Kaspersky Rescue Disk and burn it to a CD. Let the computer boot off this and see if it can find/remove the infection, as least enough to run other cleaning programs.

http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/rescuedisk#downloads

 

[bruceb]

Webshots will work on windows 8 .. get it from www.webshots.com ... from what the op says is happening, it was likely downloaded from a site with a bad or hacked file.