IE sudden strange behavior... unexplained hyperlinks and pop-ups

[Ernie]

I have IE 6.0 running on XP. Never had a problem with IE
before, but suddenly strange things are happening.

1. No matter what webpage I'm looking at, the
word "cruise" is now hyperlinked even when it should not
be. If I click on "cruise", I am sent to some search
engine at the following address:
http://www.runsearch.com/go.php?qq=cruise

2. New pop-ups. I now get the same pop-up ads (secret
eraser, windows message killer, etc) regardless of what
site I travel to. These seem to now be embedded in IE
and not generated from the site I am visiting. For
instance I just visited the Microsoft site and the
same "secret eraser" pop-up appeared. Also, the pop-ups
are actually in miniature IE windows, complete with the
address bar, rather then in a clean window like they
normally are when generated by a site.

3. Finally, I'm getting a lot more error messages,
especially when opening a second IE window. Most times I
just get a window stating an error occurred and do I want
to send the error report to Microsoft. At that point,
the IE window is closed. Other times I get an actual
pop-up error message stating "Internet Explorer can't
open the internet site ......., Operation Aborted. I
click "ok" and IE stays open, but it quits downloading
the site and the "page cannot be displayed" page
appears. When I click on refresh, it downloads the site
with no problem.


I've restored IE defaults, cleared the cache and cookies,
ran Norton with no virus found, and of course restarted.
I also have all the latest Microsoft patches and critical
updates downloaded. Nothing seems to have worked. It
really seems like something has attached itself to my
browser.

Any suggestions or evaluations of the problem (and
possible remedies) would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Ernie

 

[YoKenny]

This is a CoolWebSearch browser hijacker parasite. Get the CWShredder from
this site:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html#cwshredder

Read the following:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/nopopups.htm

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

I have IE 6.0 running on XP. Never had a problem with IE
before, but suddenly strange things are happening.

1. No matter what webpage I'm looking at, the
word "cruise" is now hyperlinked even when it should not
be. If I click on "cruise", I am sent to some search
engine at the following address:
http://www.runsearch.com/go.php?qq=cruise

2. New pop-ups. I now get the same pop-up ads (secret
eraser, windows message killer, etc) regardless of what
site I travel to. These seem to now be embedded in IE
and not generated from the site I am visiting. For
instance I just visited the Microsoft site and the
same "secret eraser" pop-up appeared. Also, the pop-ups
are actually in miniature IE windows, complete with the
address bar, rather then in a clean window like they
normally are when generated by a site.

3. Finally, I'm getting a lot more error messages,
especially when opening a second IE window. Most times I
just get a window stating an error occurred and do I want
to send the error report to Microsoft. At that point,
the IE window is closed. Other times I get an actual
pop-up error message stating "Internet Explorer can't
open the internet site ......., Operation Aborted. I
click "ok" and IE stays open, but it quits downloading
the site and the "page cannot be displayed" page
appears. When I click on refresh, it downloads the site
with no problem.


I've restored IE defaults, cleared the cache and cookies,
ran Norton with no virus found, and of course restarted.
I also have all the latest Microsoft patches and critical
updates downloaded. Nothing seems to have worked. It
really seems like something has attached itself to my
browser.

Any suggestions or evaluations of the problem (and
possible remedies) would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Ernie

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

 

[Guest]

Thanks guys! I checked out the info, installed the
programs, and everything seems to working fine now.

Much appreciated.

Ernie