This isn't a travel tech issue, per se, but everyone on the tech boards has been so helpful in the past that I'm turning to you first!

Lenovo ThinkPad laptop, about 18 months old, running Windows 8.1

A month or so ago, my Synaptic mouse (touchpad) stopped working correctly. Every time I'd reboot my computer, it reverted to the default settings, which I hate. When I'd go into the mouse settings on the control panel, I have to sit through ~5 messages telling me it wasn't working properly and then asking me if I wanted to uninstall it. I'd click the no/don't uninstall button every time, eventually get into the mouse settings, reconfigure everything and it would world fine until I rebooted again.

Last week I finally uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it. All has worked fine. I no longer got the Synaptic error message.

Today I restarted my computer and the wonky mouse settings were back, I again got the Synaptic error message. Simultaneously I notice that I'd been logged out of several of the sites that I'm always logged into (including Flyertalk and Yahoo Mail). Sure, login credentials expire, but Yahoo also thought I was signing in from an unrecognized device -- despite it being the same computer and browser I've been using for 18 months -- and forced me to go through the two-step authentication.

I can't help but wonder if the wonky mouse settings and "unknown" computer are related. Any suggestions as to what might be going on? And possible solutions (preferably ones that don't involve wiping my entire computer and reinstalling Windows)? (And also preferably solutions that don't involve "buy a Mac," since I hear that one from my boyfriend on a daily basis.)

Do you have any 'cleaning' software that you run manually or runs automatically to keep your computer 'clean'? Products like CCleaner, for example?

Just ran it and followed the advice for fixing outdated registry entries, etc. Anything in particular you think I should have it looking at?

FWIW, at the same time re-installed the mouse driver. Even though I specifically didn't have CCleaner delete any Chrome cookies, when I rebooted I had to log into FT again (second time today), though didn't have to log into Yahoo and Gmail again. (First boot up of the day I had to log into Yahoo and FT. Second reboot I had to log into Yahoo and Gmail. Third reboot -- post-CCleaner scan and mouse driver reinstallation -- had to log into FT. Under normal circumstances, I would remain logged into all three of these.)

There may well be a hardware issue as it seems Windows is discovering your touchpad during a boot. This shouldn't happen under normal circumstances. If you know how to get into the BIOS then you may find a hardware test option - if you feel confident about doing that then that's the first thing I would do - just to ensure that the hardware is okay. However, if you're not confident of booting your machine and accessing the BIOS then I wouldn't do it. Be sure not to change any settings in the BIOS if you do boot into the BIOS.

Within Windows I would run a full virus-scan and also a malware-scan (I don't what anti-virus tools you have on your machine). There's also a possibility that you've got a browser-hijack.

If you're using WiFi, are you sure you are connected to the same WiFi connection that you normally use? The 'unknown computer' or 'unknown device' message is interesting. Can you clarify what the exact warning from Yahoo is?

Have you been sent an email recently saying you're connecting from an unknown device and giving you a link to click on? Perhaps that was a phishing email?

I would also try a different browser to eliminate Chrome as the root cause (the problem could be cookie-related). I would recommend Firefox.

Finally, I wasn't trying to get you to run any cleaning software from my first post! I was merely asking if you have run anything like that previously. On occasions some cleaning software can be a little aggressive and remove things that should not be removed. However, the default settings of CCleaner are usually fine. You almost always get loads of Registry keys that are not needed anymore.

I'm going to set this suggestion aside for the time being.

I don't think my browser's been hijacked (seen that before) but I will do the full virus scan and malware scan.

Confirmed.

I've actually received the unknown device warning from Yahoo, Google and Facebook. I have two-factor authentication set up for all three sites and all required me to input a code (texted to my cell in Yahoo and Google's case, used the mobile code generator for FB) to log in today because they said they didn't recognize my device. FT and Amazon also required me to log in, though neither uses two-factor authentication (that I'm aware of). I'll make a note of the language if I get the request again.

The only notice I've received is FB's standard message telling me I'd logged in from a new device. I'm pretty attuned to phishing emails and wouldn't have clicked on a link in any event.

I actually use both Chrome and Firefox simultaneously, though the only site I log into regularly from Firefox is Feedly, which didn't ask me to log in today. I know from experience that if I do try to log into FB, Gmail, etc., on FF that I'll also get the unrecognized device since, in my experience, both the browser and the hardware will trigger this message.

Oops! Well, it doesn't seem to have screwed up anything as far as I can tell.

Thanks for the help. Right now the new mouse driver is installed, so I expect everything to work as expected -- the test will be after rebooting my computer at some point down the road.