Qstick Posted November 24, 2004 Share Posted November 24, 2004 Today I came home to find a virus, so i went through all of the Norton tols to delete the virus and ran another scan to make sure the virus was gone and thought all was well. Now, i have some strange search page as a homepage, and no matter what I do to change it, it always reverts back to the search page. I am using Internet Explorer 6 and Windows XP....anybody have any ideas of something I might be able to do? I am starting to miss Yahoo Zach <----computer idiot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackdragon Posted November 24, 2004 Share Posted November 24, 2004 Those porn sights will do it to you every time! My buddy fixed mine for me, and told me that! Ivan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sac Law Man Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Go to the tools section on the top tool bar, click internet options, on the home page box, type in the page you want. Since it keeps reverting back to something else, it sounds liie you have spyware on your computer.. Norton probably will not remove the virus. You probably will have to take it to somone who fixes computers..Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcoliver Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Have you tried running Spybot or Ad-aware? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Boudrie Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 I don't remember all the details, but I once cured this on a friends computer which would reset to a rogue search engine as the home page after every reboot. I eventually found a vbs startup script which set the registry for the IE home page, and constructed the URL from various substrings so that a text search of disk files would not find it. If you are able to reset the home page, but it changes back after a reboot, it could be something in your startup scripts. Just move to Firefox and be done with IE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackdragon Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Yea Sac Law Man, Thats what my buddy told me to do, When I hit apply it went back to my old home page. Ivan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Yeah all those "search toolbars" are spyware and you'll need something like Spybot Search & Destroy to get rid of them. Even then you may still be in trouble. I told my mother her only hope was to nuke and pave. Her computer would get re-infected within minutes after a Spyboy S&D cleanup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qstick Posted November 25, 2004 Author Share Posted November 25, 2004 I have tried running Spybot and got rid of 59 things on the computer. I went throught he entire Norton procedure for the virus that I had, and adjusted settings that it reccomended in regedit (whatever that is) but no luck, It keeps reverting back to the new page....and it reverts back immediately, not after a reboot. If I click on tools etc...and change my homepage, after hitting apply and ok, I can immediately check again and it will have reverted back to the "new" homepage. Looks like I am SOL this weekend.........and getting professional help Monday... ZAch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcoliver Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 I don't remember all the details, but I once cured this on a friends computer which would reset to a rogue search engine as the home page after every reboot. I eventually found a vbs startup script which set the registry for the IE home page, and constructed the URL from various substrings so that a text search of disk files would not find it.If you are able to reset the home page, but it changes back after a reboot, it could be something in your startup scripts. Just move to Firefox and be done with IE Oh wait, yeah, I think this happened to me, too. With WinME, it was pretty easy to spot it via MSCONFIG since I know which programs are loaded during startup. I remember deleting a startup entry and the corresponding .exe file. However, what's the msconfig equivalent in XP btw? Ditto on the firefox. It's been a long time since I got bothered with popups. But I can't seem to raise the popup for the What Movie Hero poll even with the site unblocked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skywalker Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Zach, when I had a similar problem, I solved it not with SpyWare (which I run anyway), but with Hijackthis. You might want to try it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9x23 Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Zach, You can fix it yourself if you do some internet searching. Hijackthis is good, but it can be difficult to decipher sometimes. Like Rob said it's probably your browser and not msconfig. Do a search on Google and/or Yahoo for something like "Spyware changed my homepage" then filter the results for "IE". It'll take some research, but you'll most likely find your answer. I use IE and I've had to do it many times. Panda Software Antivirus, Trend Microvirus and Rave Antivirus are good sites for help also. Good luck and happy hunting. 9x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterLefty Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 However, what's the msconfig equivalent in XP btw? It's still called msconfig in XP. Kenny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sac Law Man Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Go to this website and download (its free) Ad-aware.. http://www.lavasoft.de/purchase/home/ there is a program you can download which will detect and protect your computer from spyware and adware.. Under resources, click on download.go from there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qstick Posted November 25, 2004 Author Share Posted November 25, 2004 I downloaded and used Hijack this this morning - There is a line on the top that I am fairly sure is the culprit, but every time I try to get rid of it using hijack this, it reappears. Is there a way to track down where the line is stored on my computer and get rid of it? ZAch sorry for the lack of proper terms.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qstick Posted November 25, 2004 Author Share Posted November 25, 2004 (edited) One more update.... I ventured into regedit (don't know what that means) and deleted the file that regedit listed. Now I can change my homepage and it stays on my selectionuntil I close the browser window, then it reverts back to the unwanted page upon reopening the browser. It seems that the homepage is staying Yahoo now, but upon opening the browser for the first time, i get the unwanted page and then it stays away for as long as the browser is opened. Under regedit, I have a line under internet Exploere-Main that lists the unwanted page and has search next to it as a search page REG SZ??? This is the line that keeps coming back. Edited November 25, 2004 by Qstick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sterling White Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 zach, I had problems not too long ago too. The "about:blank" and other hijackers had taken over my machine. I went to the windows help site, googled for help, and several other ideas to rid the problems when I found a free download of etrust antivirus. Damn if that didn't work in great concert with the ad-aware software from Lavasoft. Hope this helps. sw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Meek Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Zach, go to this thread and see if the info there will help Removal of IE Hijack Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detlef Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 you most likely have a variant of cool web search (CWS). These can be dll or vbs based, and the files change name every time you reboot, such evading destruction. In sequence, try this: 1. Update your Spybot S&D, then run again. 2. Download CWShredder (just search on google to find where) and run it. 3. Download Webroot SpySweeper (free once, updates cost money). It takes forever to run (well over 1 h on my 40 GB system), but gets rid of lots of more stuff than Spybot. 4. Get a firewall other than MS and customize it. This will help prevent reinfection. 5. If nothing helps, browse the newsgroups, and follow this thread here: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11627 And if you think not browsing porn sites will spare you, think again. This and similar spyware is EVERYwhere! --Detlef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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