Google hijack?

[Steve Hawkins]

(Apologies for posting this in the ie5.general discussion as well: there's
rather a lot to choose from!)

For the last couple of days using Google toolbar I have found that after a
while I am not able to click into search boxes on web pages (to adjust the
search criteria in Google for example). I can still click into the tool bar
based search box to do this, but the next stage of the problem is then for
all the google.uk title links to gradually change to foreign languages.

Yesterday I seemed to be able to clear this by deleting the toolbar and all
the temp files and cookies from my user section of the pc (other user
accounts seemed to
work after mine had become 'contaminated' but presumably these too would be
affected if used for long). Today, having redownloaded the toolbar, after a
couple of hours searching, the situation has returned. It seems to be
associated with Google.uk.

PC is running XP Pro Service Pack 3.

Is anyone else having similar problems lately, and what is the defence
against this?
I have run Ad-Aware and Spybot and found no problems; Windows Firewall is
on; and; McAFee is running...

Regards,
SteveH

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE]

(Apologies for posting this in the ie5.general discussion as well:
there's rather a lot to choose from!)

For the last couple of days using Google toolbar I have found that
after a while I am not able to click into search boxes on web pages
(to adjust the search criteria in Google for example). I can still
click into the tool bar based search box to do this, but the next
stage of the problem is then for all the google.uk title links to
gradually change to foreign languages.

Yesterday I seemed to be able to clear this by deleting the toolbar
and all the temp files and cookies from my user section of the pc
(other user accounts seemed to
work after mine had become 'contaminated' but presumably these too
would be affected if used for long). Today, having redownloaded the
toolbar, after a couple of hours searching, the situation has
returned. It seems to be associated with Google.uk.

PC is running XP Pro Service Pack 3.

Is anyone else having similar problems lately, and what is the defence
against this?
I have run Ad-Aware and Spybot and found no problems; Windows
Firewall is on; and; McAFee is running...

Regards,
SteveH

Service Pack 3 for WinXP Pro isn't even in beta testing yet.

run HijackThis; http://aumha.org/downloads/hijackthis.zip
HijackThis - Tutorial & FAQ;
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/index.php?showtutorial=42

Register here: http://aumha.net/profile.php?mode=register
Once you have received your registration confirmation, post your HJT
log here: *(for expert analysis)*
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30

HijackThis tutorial:
http://aumha.org/a/hjttutor.htm

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/

 

[Steve Hawkins]

Thanks Frank,

The problem seems to have gone away on its own - though I have not had a
long browsing session comparable to the one where it was first noticed,
since.

Mildly worrying is that Google did not reply to my query to them about
this...

Regards,

SteveH