[Mongo Johnson]

I'll echo the earlier post noting Firefox does well for this Forum. I'm on an older XP and older IE doesn't always cut it.

If I do get prompted for a Flash install (or any) I run away, including hard powering down my machine if I get caught in some looping ad. Grrrr.

Often you can back-button out. When I do install Flash, I go to Adobe directly, never a third party and I don't click on any ads. Rather, if they're a legit vendor being referred to, I just go direct to their site.

I posted a web address the other day and the sales site put cookies into visitors' cache. Ever session I browse ends with running CC Cleaner utility my IT guys like--downloads.com has it. It wipes all temp files off the machine after a browse. Lotta megs of 'em. Seems to help blow out all sticky stuff. Bookmarks are left alone.

I stay away from all add-on tool bars and such and when installing new legit software, I watch out for "add this" software they pitch during the install. I've had ad-landen stuff added when I wasn't watching too close. Real PITA.

I've had decent luck with Malwarebytes and AVG. Have run Kaspersky well too. IT IS WELL WORTH RUNNING ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE, PAID SOFTWARE. Even some of these have gotten a little bloated but better than nuttin'.