Problem with IE and default home page

[Christian]

I problably got into a website that did this.

Now I have a default page that I don't want and no matter what I do I can't get rid of it.

This is all that I've tryed. (I'm using Windows XP and and IE 6.0.2800)

1. Going to Tools-Internet Options and changing the default page.
(after opening the program a couple of times, it goes back the the same default page "res://mshp.dll/index.html#22776")

2. Doing #1 plus deleteling all cookies and Resetting Web Setting. (same result)

3. Doing #1 and going to the registry and deleting all keys that contain "res://mshp.dll/index.html#22776" (same result)

4. Uninstalling IE and reinstalling it. (same result)

Can anybody help, please?

[bangdazap]

Adaware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/) might help (the regular version is free).

[tamiO]

Go download a better browser :)

[Christian]

bangdazap

Thanks, that did the trick.

TamiO wrote:
Go download a better browser

:D :D :D

[davidhorman]

Have look in the registry for something like ...software/microsoft/windows/currentverison/run/

Keys in there are for programs to get started up with Windows. The one time this happened to me there was a small program hidden on my hard drive that would reset my homepage after every reboot.

David

[Christian]

David,

I rebooted the computer and luckily, I had no problem with IE.
Thanks for suggesting I check that.

[Christian]

Hey, David. I'm in trouble. Is just as you said. IE did exactly the same thing again and gave me the recurring home page. HELP.

[ShowMe]

Originally posted by Christian
Hey, David. I'm in trouble. Is just as you said. IE did exactly the same thing again and gave me the recurring home page. HELP.

http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html


[edited to correct URL]

[Christian]

ShowMe,

The website is not active

[Brian]

Get Spybot Search and Destroy. It's fee. It'll take all the spyware of your computer and it has an option to lock you homepage, host file and internet options.

[ShowMe]

Originally posted by Christian
ShowMe,

The website is not active

Refresh your page, it should read correctly. If not, do a google search for hijack this!.

Or, as Brian stated, spybot search & destroy is an excellent spyware removal tool.

[Ove]

Spybot and Adaware are exellent programs to remove those buggers and as Brian said, spybot can also immunize your computer against further attac's. HijackThis is the last resort, it shows you what programmes that are activated when you start your computer and can find the bugger. Good luck. ;)

[Christian]

Brian, ShowMe, Ove thanks:

I did what you do told me. I hope the problem is solved. I'll report tomorrow (after booting in the morning) if everything worked.

[thrombus29]

There is a new one out there that I got hit with that Spybot can't take out.

It Hijacks your browser to take you to www.hugesearch.net as a home page and brings you there whenever you type http:// at the start of a address.

You have to remove a VB file in the Windows/Fonts folder, and remove a start up file in MSCONFIG, it is a real pain.

Even if you don't have that specific one, they might be using the same method to get around current anti-spy software.

More Reading-
http://www.mongabay.com/hugesearch.htm

http://www.computing.net/security/wwwboard/forum/7889.html

[Christian]

thrombus29

Thanks, its good to know that.

Spybot was able to fix this one. When I booted today an launched IE, everything was fine.

[Brian]

Originally posted by thrombus29
There is a new one out there that I got hit with that Spybot can't take out.

It Hijacks your browser to take you to www.hugesearch.net as a home page and brings you there whenever you type http:// at the start of a address.

You have to remove a VB file in the Windows/Fonts folder, and remove a start up file in MSCONFIG, it is a real pain.

Even if you don't have that specific one, they might be using the same method to get around current anti-spy software.

Did you get that just by going to a web site? Or did you install something?

[thrombus29]

I think I got it from some pop-up on a toplist when I was looking for a No-cd crack. I am pretty sure I got hit with the fake X button thing and by the time I clicked it and thought "Oh, *****" it was too late.

Whatever it was, AVG did not see it as anything malicious, and Spybot shows it as a registry change and fixes it untill you re-boot, it won't get rid of it for good.

[evildave]

When will people learn not to use IE for web browsing?

Stop using IE, and you will stop getting (most) GARBAGE installed on your machine "for you".

http://www.mozilla.org/
A free browser, that blocks pop-ups on its own, with or without the email client that most viruses won't exploit.

http://www.opera.com/
A browser, in many ways better than Mozilla and IE, that costs money (or shows you ads in a little window).

[Brian]

Originally posted by evildave
When will people learn not to use IE for web browsing?

Stop using IE, and you will stop getting (most) GARBAGE installed on your machine "for you".

http://www.mozilla.org/
A free browser, that blocks pop-ups on its own, with or without the email client that most viruses won't exploit.

http://www.opera.com/
A browser, in many ways better than Mozilla and IE, that costs money (or shows you ads in a little window).
Dunno man. I have XP with the firewall on, IE with all current patches, Zone Alarm, Google Bar pop up blocker, Spybot S&D and IE's security settings.
Never have a problem.

I have my hotmail account everywhere out on the net. Block a few choice @'s and set the security to medium, 10 or so spams a month.

[Christian]

I'm still having the problem.

I have identified the culprit but Norton Antivirus 2004 can delete the file.

It is Adware.Winshow. HELP

[thrombus29]

If you put the name of the trojan into Google, you will get a bunch of ways to deal with it.

Like this:
http://sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/adware.winshow.html


And This:

http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/Winshow.html

Good luck.

[evildave]

Originally posted by Brian

Dunno man. I have XP with the firewall on, IE with all current patches, Zone Alarm, Google Bar pop up blocker, Spybot S&D and IE's security settings.
Never have a problem.

I have my hotmail account everywhere out on the net. Block a few choice @'s and set the security to medium, 10 or so spams a month.

So let me see...

1. Install and patch up XP CONSTANTLY to keep up with the latest IE exploits while Microsoft tries to maintain their ActiveX and other "Plug IE into everything" junk.

2. Configure a firewall

3. Install Zone Alarm

4. Install Google Bar pop up blocker

5. Install Spybot S&D

6. Tinker with IE "security" settings that affect the functionality of windows shell (desktop and explorer) features.

Mozilla gives you a big chunk of #1 for not integrating into the whole OS like the IE and Outlook Express deluxe virus installation services. You don't have to patch the OS and IE all the time, and every time you patch IE, you risk damaging installations of other software (common (dialog) controls versions differ, and not all the details stay the same, and this library's often REPLACED out from under other installed software when you "upgrade" IE).

The "pop up blocker" is built into Mozilla.

The scary thing is, a LOT of people will install all that junk AND MORE, yet they won't take the most effective anti-virus and data protection measure there is: BACK UP YOUR *&#@ DATA!

A huge USB2 or 1394 hard drive that you can unplug is cheap and very secure and even convenient to back up to. With a program like "Drive Image", I can have the system boot/software partition backed up in five minutes, and keep several versions of boot. It can be restored from SCRATCH in minutes. If some annoying new symptom develops, I can have the whole OS replaced with a previous version known to be good without spending any time "trouble-shooting" the cause. I don't care what caused it anymore. I just overwrite the cause with the undamaged version.

The data files are incrementally copied with invokations of "xcopy /h /e /r /d /i /c /k /y d:\path i:\path" from a batch that (typically) takes only a few minutes as well. With these measures, it doesn't matter what happens: my important data is secure, so I can have a clean boot in minutes and recover all but the very most recent files. Even if the computer's hard drive decides to let out the magic smoke, I'm covered.

[Ove]

Evildave: I have said it before and i will repeat myself. When somebody asks for help with a programme it is no help to suggest that you "switch to XXX it is so and so effective". I have tried Mozilla and i didn't find it that much better than IE and at work at least i am forced to use IE. I agree with you regarding pop-ups and browser takeovers, there it is better but again, that doesn't help Christian one bit.

Regarding Back up i don't. I have very few things on my hard drive that i can't do without and the data that i would hate to loose(mostly pictures) i keep on CD ROM. This also saves space on the HD.

But yes, the one thing i have learned is NEVER to give out my e-mail adress to people i don't know. I have an account at Yahoo(free) that i use for "dubious" mail.;)

[Christian]

Thanks everyone again for the input. I think I finally got rid of the exe file that was causing the problem. I deleted it manually. (am I stupid or what)

Evildave.

Can you take through the backup deal, step by step? What I need to buy, how to set it up, etc. If you can't, I understand.

Ove, yes, I don't want to change my browser. That was not an attractive option. Thanks.

[evildave]

The backup deal is very simple.

Step 1. Track down where things actually are. In newer versions of windows, that's probably under "C:\documents and settings\yourname\...", and you're looking for your "My Documents" folder. If you're in the habit of saving junk to your desktop, you really shouldn't, but it's in this tree, too. Optionally, you can log on as "Administrator" and export your user profile(s) from the "Advanced" tab in "System Properties" that you can get by right-clicking "My Computer" and picking "Properties". This will copy the whole folder, personalized registry settings and all.

Step 2. Then you'll probably want to track down your mail folders, too. Especially if you leave about five years of email history lying around in it. They're in different places, dependent on what email client you use.

Step 3. Some (really bogus) programs will save work in their folder under "Program Files". I wish they wouldn't.

Step 4. Any other work folder or batch folder, or whatever you like, track that down, too.

Basically, if you want to use a CDR, use a CDR. If you want to use a DVDR or DVDRW, use that. If you want to use a USB2 (or firewire) hard disk, then use that (that's my preference for speed).

For the CDR/DVDR version of this, go drag the files to the CDR/DVDR authoring program and burn, optionally juggling files to make space.

For the USB HDD version (or "Drive letter" sim CDR/DVDR), just copy the files to it. I use a CD "cake box" and simply write the date on a backup. The newest backup is on top. The ancient history is on the bottom. I have two and a half cake boxes going back to 1998 of CDRs, but that was before USB hard drives appeared.

For me, it's simpler to write a batch file than it is to grope around in windows every time. A batch file is just a text file with a ".bat" extension that has a list of command line commands typed into it for the DOS command line interpreter to interpret. Basically, all those folders you tracked down? Put entries into the file like these...

@echo off
set xflags=/h /e /r /d /i /c /k /y
set dst=i:
set backup=%dst%\Backup
set recover=%dst%\Recover
xcopy %xflags% "D:\Games" %backup%\Games
xcopy %xflags% "D:\Mail" %backup%\Mail
xcopy %xflags% "D:\My Documents" "%backup%\My Documents"
xcopy %xflags% "D:\VMWare" %backup%\VMWare
xcopy %xflags% "D:\Work" %backup%\Work
xcopy %xflags% "D:\ste" %backup%\ste
xcopy %xflags% "D:\Jakks" %backup%\Jakks
xcopy %xflags% "E:\CD-IMAGE" %backup%\CD-IMAGE
xcopy %xflags% "E:\Download" %backup%\Download
xcopy %xflags% "E:\Movies" %backup%\Movies
xcopy %xflags% "E:\Music" %backup%\Music
xcopy %xflags% "E:\Perforce" %backup%\Perforce
xcopy %xflags% "F:\OldWork" %backup%\OldWork
xcopy %xflags% "F:\Recover" %recover%
xcopy %xflags% "C:\Config" %recover%\Config
xcopy %xflags% "C:\Documents and Settings\evildave" "%recover%\evildave"


You can find out what the "her dicky" flags do by typing "xcopy /?" at the command prompt. Basically, copy recursively, any sort of file NEWER than a file on the target, ignoring errors. Ignoring errors is important, as sometimes a file is opened without shared "read" permission, and that bites.

This will do the primary backup of my drive and directory tree, at least of the files that matter to me, to my USB HDD, which is usually "I:". It usually takes five minutes, according to how much I've done.


The other half of my backup routine is to invoke "Drive Image", which is a commercial hard disk imaging program. There are several, but this is the one I like. I backup my smallish windows boot partition to a file on "I:\recover", and five minutes later, that's done. From here, I can obliterate my boot partition and not worry about much, because as you can see, very little of what I consider to be "precious" actually lives there. I usually keep the last four or five versions of boot.


Actually, the backup batch I presented before is a little different from my current one. I use a 'robocopy' clone on a few other directories to do "mirroring", so deleted files go away, and moved files don't propagate. This is not always the "right" thing, as frequently a backup that doesn't do this "clean up" will contain something I needed, and besides, I'd have to complicate this by telling you how to find and use another copy program.

[Christian]

Evildave:

Your post took your time and knowledge. Thank you.

I will use the info.

[Christian]

Originally posted by evildave

@echo off
set xflags=/h /e /r /d /i /c /k /y
set dst=i:
set backup=%dst%\Backup
set recover=%dst%\Recover
xcopy %xflags% "D:\Games" %backup%\Games
xcopy %xflags% "D:\Mail" %backup%\Mail
xcopy %xflags% "D:\My Documents" "%backup%\My Documents"
xcopy %xflags% "D:\VMWare" %backup%\VMWare
xcopy %xflags% "D:\Work" %backup%\Work
xcopy %xflags% "D:\ste" %backup%\ste
xcopy %xflags% "D:\Jakks" %backup%\Jakks
xcopy %xflags% "E:\CD-IMAGE" %backup%\CD-IMAGE
xcopy %xflags% "E:\Download" %backup%\Download
xcopy %xflags% "E:\Movies" %backup%\Movies
xcopy %xflags% "E:\Music" %backup%\Music
xcopy %xflags% "E:\Perforce" %backup%\Perforce
xcopy %xflags% "F:\OldWork" %backup%\OldWork
xcopy %xflags% "F:\Recover" %recover%
xcopy %xflags% "C:\Config" %recover%\Config
xcopy %xflags% "C:\Documents and Settings\evildave" "%recover%\evildave"

I need an explanation of this. Evil, are you still around?

[Bearguin]

I want to second EvilDaves opinion on Firefox. I had similar problems with IE and, while I got them all fixed, I decided to try Firefox to stop them from happening again. I know it is not the answer for everyone, but it really can help if you try it.

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by Christian
Thanks everyone again for the input. I think I finally got rid of the exe file that was causing the problem. I deleted it manually. (am I stupid or what)
Christian, if you are still having virus problems, I recommend running your computer through TrendMicro's Free Virus Scan (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/). Its a corporate quality scanner and very simple to use, but it will take about an hour out of your day if youre on 56k.

[Christian]

Originally posted by Yahweh
Christian, if you are still having virus problems, I recommend running your computer through TrendMicro's Free Virus Scan (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/). Its a corporate quality scanner and very simple to use, but it will take about an hour out of your day if youre on 56k.


Thanks Yah, I'll include that link in my docs.

No, I got rid of that problem. What I want to do is back up files from directories, but I'm not sure on the syntax above.

[Nasarius]

Originally posted by Ove
I have tried Mozilla and i didn't find it that much better than IE

Firefox is cooler than the old Mozilla suite ;)
After using Opera for so long, and now Firefox, I can't imagine doing without tabbed browsing. Wait until Firefox hits 1.0 and try it again for a day or two. You'll probably like it. Nobody's suggesting switching to Linux or something, just trying a different browser. Even my girlfriend, who's good with Photoshop but by no means technically inclined, got hooked on tabbed browsing :) She still uses msn.com as her homepage though...