Hi TD - This has been showing up a lot lately and seems to be caused by some
malware called CoolWebSearch. Do the following:
Download and run:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip to
remove the parasite
Then download and run:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/iegentabs.reg to restore your
tabs and remove any restrictions that the parasite has put in place.
However, this also indicates that you may have acquired some other malware
along the way. If you go to this page at Jim Eshelman's site, here:
http://aumha.org/a/noads.htm and wait a little bit (be patient), an analysis
of a number of possible parasites on your machine will be made to help you
identify and remove them. NOTE: You will need to disable Ad Blocking in Zone
Alarm 3.x, if present or any other Ad Blocking software which interferes
with Java Scripting for this scan to work. You should get a message between
the two lines of **** giving the results of the scan.
Get Ad-Aware 6.0, Build 181 or later, here:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/. Update and run this regularly
to get rid of most "spyware/hijackware" on your machine. If it has to fix
things, be sure to re-boot and rerun AdAware again and repeat this cycle
until you get a clean scan. The reason is that it may have to remove
things which are currently "in use" before it can then clean up others.
Another excellent program for this purpose is SpyBot Search and Destroy
available here:
http://security.kolla.de/ SpyBot Support Forum here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi. I recommend
using both normally. After fixing things with SpyBot S&D, be sure to
re-boot and rerun SpyBot again and repeat this cycle until you get a clean
"no red" scan. The reason is that SpyBot sometimes has to remove things
which are currently "in use" before it can then clean up others.
Note that sometimes you need to make a judgement call about what these
programs report as spyware. See here, for example:
http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm
--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
In
TD said:
Yep, me too. I'm just adding onto the list and hoping
Microsoft will see that there are quite a few people stuck
with this annoying crap and will put up a solution. I'm
hoping.
-----Original Message-----
Like Peter, my homepage has been hijacked by
www.searchv.com. I've downloaded Spybot, Ad-aware,
CWShredder and HijackThis (and downloaded all updates as
recommended). Although these applications found some
suspect files and removed them, upon re-boot my homepage
is hijacked by
www.searchv.com time and time again. It
looks like Coolwebsearch or Searchv or whoever remains
one step ahead of those trying to prevent this sort of
thing. Anyone have any new suggestions? Your help is
appreciated.
Mike
-----Original Message-----
Peter,
searchv = Coolwebsearch ......parasite
How to remove Coolwebsearch and affiliates
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch
_________________________________________________________ ___
Mike Burgess [MVP Windows Shell\User]
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 10-10- 03]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid
--
I usually have yahoo as my homepage. but lately, every
time I turn on the computer, the homepage goes to a site
named searchv.com. I tried changing it back to yahoo but
the change is only effective until I turn off my
computer. Then it goes to searchv again when I turn my
computer back on. Any suggestions will be greatly
appreciated.
.
.
