IE6 starts by itself many times

[Saga]

This has happened both at work and at home.

I have IE6 open and suddenly another instance of it appears on screen then another
and another. I have gotten up to 46 instances of IE open at once. I franticaly try
closing them down using Alt-F4 the red "x" close button at the top right and right
clicking the program name in the task bar and selecting Close group.

Eventually, I manage to close all the IE windows down. Now a friend's computer is
doing the same thing. This does not happen often, very sporadic. The work PC is
heavily (if I can use that term) protected against malware by enterprise class anti
virus and firewall. As far as I can tell, no virus is reported.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any orientation as to where to dig for a solution
or definition of the problem is appreciated. Thank you. Saga

As an additional note, I Googled the problem and there are many hits that describe
ieexplorer.exe running in the background. In my case IE opens up as though it were
opened by the user.

--

 

[Shenan Stanley]

This has happened both at work and at home.

I have IE6 open and suddenly another instance of it appears on
screen then another and another. I have gotten up to 46 instances
of IE open at once. I franticaly try closing them down using Alt-F4
the red "x" close button at the top right and right clicking the
program name in the task bar and selecting Close group.
Eventually, I manage to close all the IE windows down. Now a
friend's computer is doing the same thing. This does not happen
often, very sporadic. The work PC is heavily (if I can use that
term) protected against malware by enterprise class anti virus and
firewall. As far as I can tell, no virus is reported.
Has this happened to anyone else? Any orientation as to where to
dig for a solution or definition of the problem is appreciated.
Thank you. Saga
As an additional note, I Googled the problem and there are many
hits that describe ieexplorer.exe running in the background. In my
case IE opens up as though it were opened by the user.

You are infested/infected.

Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan (separately) with the
following two applications (freeware versions are the ones to use for this):

SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/

After performing a full scan with one and then the other and removing
whatever they both find completely, you may uninstall these products,
if you wish.

Reboot.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net stop wuauserv
--> Click OK.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\regsvr32 %SystemRoot%\system32\wups2.dll
--> Click OK.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net start wuauserv
--> Click OK.

Download the latest version of the Windows Update agent from here (x86):
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237
.... and save it to the root of your C:\ drive. After saving it to the root
of the C:\ drive, do the following:

Close all Internet Explorer Windows and other applications.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemDrive%\windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /WUFORCE
--> Click OK.

(If asked, select "Run.) --> Click on NEXT --> Select "I agree" and click on
NEXT --> When it finishes installing, click on "Finish"...

Reboot.

Log on as a user with administrative rights and open Internet Explorer and
visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and select to do a CUSTOM scan...
(Every time you are about to click on something while at these web pages -
first press and hold down the CTRL key while you click on it. You can
release the CTRL key after clicking each time.)

Once the scan is done, select just ONE of the high priority updates
(deselect any others) and install it.

Reboot again.

If it did work - try the web page again - selecting no more than 3-5 at a
time.

The Optional Software updates are generally safe - although I recommend
against the "Windows Search" one. I would completely avoid the Optional
Hardware updates.

Come back - let us know if that worked.
.... Really - come back and let everyone know if that worked.

 

[Elmo]

This has happened both at work and at home.

I have IE6 open and suddenly another instance of it appears on screen then another
and another. I have gotten up to 46 instances of IE open at once. I frantically try
closing them down using Alt-F4 the red "x" close button at the top right and right
clicking the program name in the task bar and selecting Close group.

Eventually, I manage to close all the IE windows down. Now a friend's computer is
doing the same thing. This does not happen often, very sporadic. The work PC is
heavily (if I can use that term) protected against malware by Enterprise class anti
virus and firewall. As far as I can tell, no virus is reported.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any orientation as to where to dig for a solution
or definition of the problem is appreciated. Thank you. Saga

As an additional note, I Googled the problem and there are many hits that describe
ieexplorer.exe running in the background. In my case IE opens up as though it were
opened by the user.

IE is Iexplore.exe Anything similar could be malware.

The previous version of AIM did a similar thing right after I closed one
of its sessions, whether it be a preference change, or some other
function. The current version doesn't do this.

Though I don't know what version did that, my current, working version
of AIM is ver. 6.8.15.1

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Assuming you hadn't just clicked on a MailTo: link...

Chances are that you're seeing the affects of a hijackware infection.

1. See if you can download/run the MSRT manually:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

2. Run this online scan (in safe mode w/networking, if need be):
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/howsafe.htm

3. Run additional checks for hijackware, including posting your hijackthis
log to an appropriate forum.

Checking for/Help with Hijackware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=5878
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/data/prevention.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/tshoot.html
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm
http://defendingyourmachine2.blogspot.com/
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

When all else fails, HijackThis v2.0.2
(http://aumha.org/downloads/hijackthis.exe) is the preferred tool to use (in
conjuction with some other utilities). HijackThis will NOT fix anything on
its own, but it will help you to both identify and remove any
hijackware/spyware with assistance from an expert. **Post your log to
http://spywarehammer.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php?board=10.0,
http://forums.spybot.info/forumdisplay.php?f=22,
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30, or another appropriate forum for review
by an expert in such matters, not here.**

If the procedures look too complex - and there is no shame in admitting this
isn't your cup of tea - take the machine to a local, reputable and
independent (i.e., not BigBoxStoreUSA) computer repair shop.