about a week ago, I was surfing the internet minding my own business when all the sudden, I had several popups, come at me then go. Now when I click on internet explorer, my homepage says about:blank and goes to a site called search for... I change it back to msn.com which I use for my homepage and I can open IE one time and I have to do it fast, because it will change back again if I wait too long. I can set my homepage to msn.com, open IE then go back to internet properties and it again says about:blank.

I have read up on this on a few sites and others had problems just like mine. I found a few programs that I downloaded that gave a free scan, but I had to pay to actually get rid of everything. One site mentioned it was a variation of the CoolWebSearch thing going on. I have ran CWShredder, Spybot S&D and adaware. CWS and Spybot tell me my system is clean and adaware finds a few things and I clear them, but it changes right back again as if I had done nothing at all. Anybody know of any completely free programs or ways to get rid of this because I do not have any valid credit cards and I have no money right now.

Any help would be appreciated

 

make sure both programs have their current updates.

Reboot in safe mode run from there. If you are comfortable with the registry check hklm\software\microsoft\windows\run for any unusual entries just be careful what you remove.

 

Click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK. In Registry Editor, locate the following sub key, if it exists:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Inte rnet\Explorer\Control Panel

If the ResetWebSettings value or the Homepage value exists in this key, right-click the values, and then click Delete.

At that point, go back and reset the homepage to whatever you want it to be by right-clicking on the Explorer icon, and left clicking on properties. Once you press OK, it should not revert back.

 

Hey, I've had that one.

Adaware removed it for me. Have you upgraded ad-aware recently? They have a new version out.

www.download.com and snag the new one.

RP

 

junk IE and use a real browser like firefox or mozilla. IE has so many security flaws is pitiful. Pestpatrol is about the best program i have used to clear out spyware, much better than adaware i think. You can try this tool its a trial version and should work without having to pay for it. Otherwise there is a manual method for removing the browser hijack but its quite involved if you've nevermessed around in the registry.

 

Adaware is good. Also do a google search for "SpyBot Search & Destroy"...a really good free crap remover