How to remove the Robber Page from IE

[Bill Sun]

Hi,
I have browsed some robber website, which sets his page as the home page
of my browser, and don't let me chang to the original by IE's property
setting. I have tried to delete the item
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control
Panel\HomePage in registry as MS:Q195161, but it was not available.So, who
can help me to remove the robber pages from IE?(Win2k,IE5).

Thanks advanced,


Bill

 

[Sandi - Microsoft MVP]

This advice covers three types of home page locking - hijacking (by web
sites), hijacking (by viruses) and locking (by ISPs when you install their
software, and computer manufacturers)

Hijacking

First, update to Internet Explorer 6. Most sites that try to hijack your
home page will now trigger a 'do you want to do this' warning message that
lets you stop the hijacking. The sneaky background activex downloads that
are often used by hijack sites to install spyware will also trigger a 'do
you want to do this' install window.

Some web sites try to change your home page or search engine options if you
visit them. Some that have been mentioned in the newsgroups include gohip,
sureseeker, webcombo, cybersearch and passthison.

Microsoft links to problems with the above sites are as follows:

PassThisOn.com Home Page Appears When You Start Computer [Q309313]
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q309313

Cannot Change Default Home Page Setting from Webcombo Site [Q302459]
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q302459

More general advice can be found at the next link:

Home Page Setting Changes Unexpectedly, or You Cannot Change Your Home Page
Setting
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;320159

In addition, you may discover that browser.secondpower.com is being added to
your homepage URL. This link has an Uninstaller:
http://www.secondpower.com/customer.html

Please see this link for advice on security fixes that can help prevent such
hijackings.

http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm#hijackings

Also, there are some viruses that can reset your home page - so make sure
that your antivirus is completely up to date.

There is a clever little shareware programme that can help stop your home
page being changed; it seems to work well but tends to trigger when you
change your home page manually the next time that you start IE - the
programme makes it much easier to take back control of your home page
settings:

http://download.cnet.com/downloads/...?st.dl.10059-101-8571968.bc.10059-100-8571968

Locking

Some computer manufacturers and suppliers of internet access set IE to their
home page and lock this setting via the registry. Hijackers use exactly the
same trick. The locking is done using registry settings as per the
following:

Home Page Setting Changes Unexpectedly, or You Cannot Change Your Home Page
Setting (Q320159)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q320159

Specific registry settings affected are:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control
Panel] - DWORD "HomePage"=dword:00000001 (grays out the whole section)

[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

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

Hi,
I have browsed some robber website, which sets his page as the
home page of my browser, and don't let me chang to the original by
IE's property setting. I have tried to delete the item
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Control Panel\HomePage in registry as MS:Q195161, but it was
not available.So, who can help me to remove the robber pages from
IE?(Win2k,IE5).

Thanks advanced,


Bill

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

 

[Invisibleman www.allexperts.com]

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip
A general homepage hijackers detector and remover.
Initially based on the article Hijacked!, but expanded with
almost a dozen other checks against hijacker tricks. It is
continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks. It
does not target specific programs/URLs, just the methods
used by hijackers to force you onto their sites. As a
result, false positives are imminent and unless you are
sure what you're doing, you should always consult with
knowledgable folks (e.g. the forums) before deleting anything.
Currently at version 1.96


CoolWebShredder
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip
http://mjc1.com/files/merijn/cwshredder.zip
A small utility for removing CoolWebSearch (aka
CoolWwwSearch, YouFindAll, White-Pages.ws and a dozen other
names). Spybot S&D tends to forget essential parts of the
hijack, so until it updates, you can just this to
completely remove the hijack. Updated to remove the new
variants once they come out.
Currently at version 1.12

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Sandi - FYI, here's a better link for StartPageGuard:
http://www.pjwalczak.com/spguard/ The one you currently have leads to "This
title is no longer available!"

--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim


In Sandi - Microsoft MVP <[email protected]> typed:

There is a clever little shareware programme that can help stop your home
page being changed; it seems to work well but tends to trigger when you
change your home page manually the next time that you start IE - the
programme makes it much easier to take back control of your home page
settings:

http://download.cnet.com/downloads/...?st.dl.10059-101-8571968.bc.10059-100-8571968

<snip>

 

[Sandi - Microsoft MVP]

Thanks Jim.