Home Page

[Arpan]

I am using IE 6. I always set the home page as blank. Since last 4-5 days I
find that when I start IE the 1st time after logging in, it goes to
http://out.true-counter.com/a/?3
%34%34%30%31%32%20%20about:blank. When I had a look at the home page by
clicking Tools----->Internet Options, as expected, I find that
automatically, the home page has got reset to the above URL. I change it to
about:blank & after that it works fine. The problem happens when I start my
machine & open IE for the 1st time. I also made a few changes in the
Registry but that didn't make any difference. I visited
HKEY_CURRENT_USER---->Software---->Microsoft---->Internet Explorer where the
values of the strings Search & SearchURL (in the right window pane) is the
above long URL. Same is the case with the values of the strings
Default_Page_URL, Default_Search_URL, Search Bar, Search Page & Start Page
under HKEY_CURRENT_USER---->Software---->Microsoft---->Internet
Explorer---->Main. Also under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER---->Software---->Microsoft---->Internet
Explorer--->Search, the values of CustomizeSearch & SearchAssistant are
again the same URL. Wherever I have found the above long URL in the
Registry, I have deleted all of them (but haven't assigned any new value).
But this doesn't make any difference. IE's home page reverts back to the
above long URL once I log in to my machine. How do I get rid of this
irritating problem?

Thanks,

Arpan

 

[mac]

I am using IE 6. I always set the home page as blank. Since last 4-5 days I
find that when I start IE the 1st time after logging in, it goes to
http://out.true-counter.com/a/?3
%34%34%30%31%32%20%20about:blank. When I had a look at the home page by
clicking Tools----->Internet Options, as expected, I find that
automatically, the home page has got reset to the above URL. I change it to
about:blank & after that it works fine. The problem happens when I start my
machine & open IE for the 1st time. I also made a few changes in the
Registry but that didn't make any difference. I visited
HKEY_CURRENT_USER---->Software---->Microsoft---->Internet Explorer where the
values of the strings Search & SearchURL (in the right window pane) is the
above long URL. Same is the case with the values of the strings
Default_Page_URL, Default_Search_URL, Search Bar, Search Page & Start Page
under HKEY_CURRENT_USER---->Software---->Microsoft---->Internet
Explorer---->Main. Also under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER---->Software---->Microsoft---->Internet
Explorer--->Search, the values of CustomizeSearch & SearchAssistant are
again the same URL. Wherever I have found the above long URL in the
Registry, I have deleted all of them (but haven't assigned any new value).
But this doesn't make any difference. IE's home page reverts back to the
above long URL once I log in to my machine. How do I get rid of this
irritating problem?

"Some ISP's provide a customised version of IE. Some Web pages will also
reset your home page and do this. One of the customisations they might make
is to disable the ability to change the home page, so that you are forced to
use their home page. You can re-enable this by making a small change in the
Windows registry.

In Regedit, navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control
Panel

In the right-hand pane, right-click the "HomePage" value, then select
Modify. Change it to: 00 00 00 00

Also change either or these to zero 0 instead of 1 if present:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explo
rer] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Restrictions] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001


If you don't have this key, browse to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

and in the right hand pane, double click "Local Page" and set equal to
"C:\WINDOWS\System\blank.htm" (no quotes) which will hopefully set your Home
Page to blank and then allow you to subsequently modify it using Internet
Options.

Exit regedit and reboot.

When you reboot, you should be able to change the home page again.

Some pages will also download a program which keeps changing it back. Go to
Start | Run and type:
msconfig
and press <Enter> or click OK. Go to the Startup tab.
See if you can identify any suspicious programs. If you can, uncheck it, If
you can't, change the home page to what you want and then uncheck one and
then reboot. Try IE. If the Web page changed, change it back and then try
msconfig again, rechecking the last one and unchecking the next. Keep doing
this until you find the culprit.

 

[Arpan]

Thanks, Mac, for your advice. As far as the first 3 Regedit keys you have
mentioned are concerned, I don't have those keys. The value of "Local Page"
in my machine under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Main
shows C:\WINDOWS\System32\blank.htm but when I searched for blank.htm in the
System32 directory, I didn't find any such file. Blank.htm even doesn't
exist in the System directory. But there is one Blank.htm file in
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\OOBE. So I changed the value of "Local Page" to
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\OOBE\Blank.htm. After this, I changed all the values which
had the long URL to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\OOBE\Blank.htm. I rebooted my machine
only to find that the problem still persists!

Also when I try to run msconfig using Start--->Run, I get the following
error:

Cannot find the file 'msconfig' (or one of its components). Make sure the
path and filename are correct and that all required libraries are available.

I even tried to open msconfig from the Command Prompt but it says

'msconfig' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable
program or batch file.

Is something missing in my Windows 2000 Professional? If so, what is it &
how do I revert back to normalcy (without having to re-install Win 2K!)? Any
other suggestions to get rid of IE's home page problem?

Thanks once again,

Regards,

Arpan

I am using IE 6. I always set the home page as blank. Since last 4-5

days

I
find that when I start IE the 1st time after logging in, it goes to

http://out.true-counter.com/a/?3

%34%34%30%31%32%20%20about:blank. When I had a look at the home page by
clicking Tools----->Internet Options, as expected, I find that
automatically, the home page has got reset to the above URL. I change it to
about:blank & after that it works fine. The problem happens when I start my
machine & open IE for the 1st time. I also made a few changes in the
Registry but that didn't make any difference. I visited
HKEY_CURRENT_USER---->Software---->Microsoft---->Internet Explorer where the
values of the strings Search & SearchURL (in the right window pane) is the
above long URL. Same is the case with the values of the strings
Default_Page_URL, Default_Search_URL, Search Bar, Search Page & Start Page
under HKEY_CURRENT_USER---->Software---->Microsoft---->Internet
Explorer---->Main. Also under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER---->Software---->Microsoft---->Internet
Explorer--->Search, the values of CustomizeSearch & SearchAssistant are
again the same URL. Wherever I have found the above long URL in the
Registry, I have deleted all of them (but haven't assigned any new value).
But this doesn't make any difference. IE's home page reverts back to the
above long URL once I log in to my machine. How do I get rid of this
irritating problem?

"Some ISP's provide a customised version of IE. Some Web pages will also
reset your home page and do this. One of the customisations they might make
is to disable the ability to change the home page, so that you are forced to
use their home page. You can re-enable this by making a small change in the
Windows registry.

In Regedit, navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control
Panel

In the right-hand pane, right-click the "HomePage" value, then select
Modify. Change it to: 00 00 00 00

Also change either or these to zero 0 instead of 1 if present:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explo
rer] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Restrictions] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001


If you don't have this key, browse to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

and in the right hand pane, double click "Local Page" and set equal to
"C:\WINDOWS\System\blank.htm" (no quotes) which will hopefully set your Home
Page to blank and then allow you to subsequently modify it using Internet
Options.

Exit regedit and reboot.

When you reboot, you should be able to change the home page again.

Some pages will also download a program which keeps changing it back. Go to
Start | Run and type:
msconfig
and press <Enter> or click OK. Go to the Startup tab.
See if you can identify any suspicious programs. If you can, uncheck it, If
you can't, change the home page to what you want and then uncheck one and
then reboot. Try IE. If the Web page changed, change it back and then try
msconfig again, rechecking the last one and unchecking the next. Keep doing
this until you find the culprit.

 

[mac]

Is something missing in my Windows 2000 Professional?

http://www.google.com/groups?as_q=m...ional&safe=images&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&lr=&hl=en

have a look here - also click on the web tab for more info.

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Arpan - Startpage - For the general hijack case, the best way to start is
to 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.


See this Microsoft article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q323869

There's good information about hijacking and fixes available here:
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers.htm#home_page
http://www.spywareinfo.com/hijacked.html
http://gmpservicesinc.com/Articles/hijack.asp (links here for .reg files to
lock and unlock your homepage, BTW) and,
Courtesy of Mike Burgess - To Unlock your HomePage go to:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/ietips.htm#Protecting
and download: HKLM-HKCU_Undo_HomePage.reg
or see below for manual instructions.


Then, from http://www.fjsmjs.com/IE/homepage.htm (Courtesy of Frank
Saunders MS-MVP IE/OE)



"Some ISP's provide a customized version of IE. Some Web pages will also
reset your home page and do this. One of the customizations they might make
is to disable the ability to change the home page, so that you are forced to
use their home page. You can re-enable this by making a small change in the
Windows registry.

In Regedit, navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control
Panel

In the right-hand pane, right-click the "HomePage" value, then select
Modify. Change it to: 00 00 00 00

Also change either or these to zero 0 instead of 1 if present:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explo
rer] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Restrictions] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001


If you don't have this key, browse to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

and in the right hand pane, double click "Local Page" and set equal to
"C:\WINDOWS\System\blank.htm" (no quotes) which will hopefully set your Home
Page to blank and then allow you to subsequently modify it using Internet
Options.

Exit regedit and reboot.

When you reboot, you should be able to change the home page again.

Some pages will also download a program which keeps changing the home page
back. Go to Start | Run and type: msconfig and press <Enter> or click OK.
Go to the Startup tab. See if you can identify any suspicious programs. If
you can, uncheck it, If you can't, change the home page to what you want and
then uncheck one and then reboot. Try IE. If the Web page changed, change it
back and then try msconfig again, rechecking the last one and unchecking the
next. Keep doing this until you find the culprit.

Since you're on Win2k, you won't have msconfig natively. You can go here:

http://www.thetechguide.com/downloads.html (XP Version which works in Win2k
just fine) or here:

http://www.3feetunder.com/files/win2K_msconfig_setup.exe (stated to be a
Win2k Version - probably the same as the XP) or here:

http://www.techadvice.com/win2000/m/msconfig_w2k.htm and download msconfig.

As good, but different, is to go here: http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml
and get Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel applet. A somewhat more difficult
to use but more extensive program to do the same thing is StartupList from
here: http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/index.html, or even better,
Autoruns from here:
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/misc.shtml#autoruns. Be very
careful about doing any Registry modifications directly unless you're
comfortable with this, and be sure that you BACKUP your Registry before
making any changes, so that you can recover if something goes wrong.
Changes made with StartUpCPL are less likely to cause problems, and are
usually a matter of just re-enabling the particular program. Another
program of this type that I can recommend is StartMan, free. You'll have to
get it here: http://www.pt.lu/comnet/files/utils/startman10396.exe, as the
pcforest site is, sadly, no longer in business. Another such free program
that I can highly recommend is StartupRun, here: http://nirsoft.cjb.net/,
particularly if you suspect malware problems. And finally, StartupCop,
here is excellent and allows you to set up multiple "startup profiles":
http://www.pchelp911.com/files/startcop.zip. If you have problems with
suspected hijackers, you can look up and investigate suspect programs in
your StartUp lists here:
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm (Recommended)
http://www.3feetunder.com/krick/startup/list.html (Recommended)
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm (Recommended)


All work fine for controlling startups, however, I would recommend getting
both of the last two. They're both free, and each has some advantages. For
example, the XP msconfig also gives you some visibility/control over
services, while Mike's applet offers much better startup control.


You might also want to look at this little program. I haven't tried it, but
I've read encouraging reports:
http://www.pjwalczak.com/spguard/"



also check out:

Home Page Hijacking
Courtesy of Kelly's Korner, here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm

"Check your settings here for the malware address: Start/Run/Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control
Panel\HomePage

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page

IE/Tools/Internet Options/General/Home Page/Address.

If the feature is disabled (greyed out), see here for a script to toggle it:
http://www.dougknox.com/security/scripts_desc/nosethomepage.htm
and/or use these reg files to set the secific condition you want

Lock Home Page: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/HomePageLock.reg
Unlock Home Page:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/HomePageUnlock.reg "



Also, in IE6 you can go to Tools|Internet Options|Programs and click on
Reset Web Settings. BE AWARE though that this will reset your homepage and
search settings to the IE6 defaults.


Lastly, if you didn't go the Reset Web Settings route and ONLY if your
search settings were also hijacked, download and run this .reg file from
Kelly's site: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/RestoreSearch2.REG


Be sure and clear your Temporary Internet Files (TIF) after implementing any
of these fixes.

Once you get this cleaned up, you might want to consider installing the
SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard here to help prevent this kind of thing from
happening in the future: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/spywareblaster.html
(Prevents malware Active X installs) (BTW, SpyWare Blaster is not memory
resident ... no CPU or memory load - but keep it updated) The latest
version as of this writing will prevent installation or prevent the malware
from running if it is already installed for 325 parasites/tracking cookies,
and provides information and fixit-links for a variety of parasites.
http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html (Monitors for attempts to
install malware)
Both Very Highly Recommended.


--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

 

[H Leboeuf]

Rule out parasites.
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

Thanks, Mac, for your advice. As far as the first 3 Regedit keys you have
mentioned are concerned, I don't have those keys. The value of "Local Page"
in my machine under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Main
shows C:\WINDOWS\System32\blank.htm but when I searched for blank.htm in the
System32 directory, I didn't find any such file. Blank.htm even doesn't
exist in the System directory. But there is one Blank.htm file in
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\OOBE. So I changed the value of "Local Page" to
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\OOBE\Blank.htm. After this, I changed all the values which
had the long URL to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\OOBE\Blank.htm. I rebooted my machine
only to find that the problem still persists!

Also when I try to run msconfig using Start--->Run, I get the following
error:

Cannot find the file 'msconfig' (or one of its components). Make sure the
path and filename are correct and that all required libraries are available.

I even tried to open msconfig from the Command Prompt but it says

'msconfig' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable
program or batch file.

Is something missing in my Windows 2000 Professional? If so, what is it &
how do I revert back to normalcy (without having to re-install Win 2K!)? Any
other suggestions to get rid of IE's home page problem?

Thanks once again,

Regards,

Arpan

days

http://out.true-counter.com/a/?3

it
to start
my where
the

"Some ISP's provide a customised version of IE. Some Web pages will also
reset your home page and do this. One of the customisations they might make
is to disable the ability to change the home page, so that you are

forced

to
use their home page. You can re-enable this by making a small change in the
Windows registry.

In Regedit, navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control
Panel

In the right-hand pane, right-click the "HomePage" value, then select
Modify. Change it to: 00 00 00 00

Also change either or these to zero 0 instead of 1 if present:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explo

rer] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Restrictions] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001


If you don't have this key, browse to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

and in the right hand pane, double click "Local Page" and set equal to
"C:\WINDOWS\System\blank.htm" (no quotes) which will hopefully set your Home
Page to blank and then allow you to subsequently modify it using Internet
Options.

Exit regedit and reboot.

When you reboot, you should be able to change the home page again.

Some pages will also download a program which keeps changing it back. Go to
Start | Run and type:
msconfig
and press <Enter> or click OK. Go to the Startup tab.
See if you can identify any suspicious programs. If you can, uncheck it, If
you can't, change the home page to what you want and then uncheck one and
then reboot. Try IE. If the Web page changed, change it back and then try
msconfig again, rechecking the last one and unchecking the next. Keep doing
this until you find the culprit.