Please help!

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Macintrash's picture
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Last seen: 9 years 11 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
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Please help!

Hey all.

In desperate need of help!

My PC computer running XP home has picked up some form of virus or bug. Every time I open Internet explorer the page C:\Searchpage.html comes up. I can temporarily set my homepage to www.yahoo.com but when IE is closed and re opened the same page comes up. Also I cannot simply type in a URL (the http://) has to be put in front.

I have tried deleting it from C:\ but it comes back every time I open IE.
Adaware wont detect anything either.

Has this happened to anyone else?
Does anyone know how one goes about removing this?

Please help.

Ta

Macintrash >:(

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Last seen: 12 years 9 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 01:35
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first of all this should be i

first of all this should be in a different forum, but seeing that i am not a mod ill help you out before this gets moved. it looks to me like you have spyware or adware. if I were you i would download a spyware removal tool such as spybot(security.kolla.de)

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and when your done with that

and when your done with that download mozilla it beats ie hands down(www.mozilla.org)

rael9's picture
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Joined: Dec 26 2003 - 16:21
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Or Firefox

Or if you don't need all of the Mozilla suite (i.e. e-mail, chat, addressbook, etc...) download Firefox from the same site (www.mozilla.org). This should be a prerequistie to owning a Windows PC, as IE has a tendency to let through a lot of malicious software unless you secure it properly.

As to getting rid of it, try another adware removal program, like Spybot mentioned above. Or you could try Antivir (www.free-av.com), as it has options for removing spyware as well as viruses. And it's free. And it's updated daily (usually).

woogie's picture
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Adware! Anti-tech...

I think this is in the right thread as I think
that spyware and adware is 'anti-technology'! It's
also the nastiest thing to come along in ages!

Now to get rid of it, all of the above suggestions
are excellent. My favorite tools are "Spybot Search
& Destroy" and "Bazooka Spyware Scanner/Remover"
These are free from 'www.download.com' and work
very well together.

I had the exact same thing happen to me and these
two programs got rid of the problem. "Bazooka" re-
quires you to manually remove the offending codes,
but provides detailed instructions to do it. "Spy-
bot" removes offending spy/ad ware on its own. You
will need both of these programs as there seems to
be no one single program that will get everything
out of your computer.

Hope this is helpful.

martakz's picture
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Lavasoft Ad-aware 6 is the ea

Lavasoft Ad-aware 6 is the easiest and in my opinion the best to use...

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Spybot Search and Destroy Ad

Spybot Search and Destroy
AdAware

They're both free...they both work.

Check for updates just before you run each application. It will automatically download and install any new updates which are done frequently.

Every week, one of our sales team comes into the office after staffing our exhibit at a trade show complaining of some pop-up or browser pirate that's been downloaded to their laptop....by accident of course...because they would never stray from our domain with a wide-open T1 out to the internet and nothing to do on the show floor.

Haven't had anything yet that AdAware, Spybot, or Norton couldn't fix. And if it should happen, we'll reformat their drive.

tony b.

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Last seen: 6 years 12 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
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You have what is called a "hi

You have what is called a "hijacked browser". The tool that I use (besides the above mentioned ones) is called Hijack this available at: http://download.com.com/HijackThis/3000-8022-10227352.html?tag=lst-0-4

Downlaod it and unzip the files to your desktop (it has no installer, you just unzip the files to a folder).

Once done, reboot into safe mode (thats important).

Once in safe mode, launch the program (hijack this).

CLick scan.

It will then give you a window with a ton of choices that you could click.

Now is the fun part, YOU (the user) has to decide what things to check or not. Bascially what I check is everyting that is not related to windows or a trusted company (such as microsoft, quicktime, realplayer (but i unchecked that one anyway), macromedia, etc.) In particular,you want to check all the boxes with odd names or names like "searchpage", "lycosidesearch", etc. etc. I also checked a few buttons taht had itmes in it that were just gibberish (some companies are now making their toolbars be in gibberish letters so when you see them in a program like this, you are afraid to uncheck them.)

Then close all oher windows besides hijack this and then clikc "Fix Selected" and click OK to the warning box that comes up about BHO's.

About 90 percent of the time, these instrucitons will fix browsers taht are hijacked.

Using firefox, etc is a good idea but its just a bandaid to a problem taht still exists in the comptuer.

Good luck.

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