Windows 10: How do I fix the small task windowcan't even read that appears during Win 10 reset, remove...

I used the MS reset option for Win 10 on a HP laptop 2 years old and selected remove all data. This was because the system was dreadfully slow and taking long time to boot. Successfully started the re-registration and all of a sudden the task window reduced to about 1"x 1". Couldn't read it. I was getting audio clues about where I was in the process but could not see the 'yes or no' buttons to click. Tried to reboot in 'safe mode' but that didn't work. Can't access settings for display since windows isn't registered yet. Any suggestions other than fresh install since I don't have a bo

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Win 10; Folders: Documents, Pictures andMuic are Read only

Everything has worked very smoothly for a long time, then suddenly I am no longer able to write to the above folders. Tried removing read only, Win goes through the steps of changing the attribute flag, but when I go back into properties,

it resets itself to read only.

Any suggestions?

 

How to remove en.softonic malware that appears on desktop periodically

A kind of malware has somehow gotten onto my win 10 PC. What I get is a small advertisment that pops up in the bottom right on my desktop... When I turn it off (clicking the corner X). It comes back again some time later but with different content.

I haven't timed it but seems lake maybe a 1/2 hr.

I've googled extensively but all the instructions I've found, tell you to use the windows uninstaller to uninstall softonic. And maybe some manual clean up after the uninstall. But there is nothing installed with `softonic' in its name and even when the ad is running there is no process running with softonic in its name.

All the google hits appear to assume the windows uninstaller will know about softonic. Even the manual parts of some of the hits appear to assume you have been successful in unintalling it.

The instructions also suggest several free malware removal products and claim any of them will remove it.
`Zema Anti-malware', `MalwareBytes' and `AdwCleaner'

I tried all those listed in one of the instruction sets, ran the scan but none of them found whatever is running the little softonic pop up ad.

This type of malware apparently falls into a category called a `PUP'.

I never found in the google hits what expected would be there somewhere. A list of steps to remove something like this by hand.

Can anyone here advise me?

 

Unwanted popup webpage

See if these multi-step removal guides help:

• https://malwaretips.com/blogs/win-an-iphone-virus-removal/
• https://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-popup-ads-windows-10/

Suggestion to read:

Best Practices for Safe Computing - Prevention of Malware Infection