Logon to Home Page

[TNRoadHog]

When I attempt to logon to my home page, my.msn.com, I
often recieve a message; "Object moved to here",
where "here" is a hot link. Clicking on this hot link
opens another message; "SpyBot S&D reports that you want
to download Avenue A, inc. This is a known threat. Do you
want to block this download". (Spybot is a program for
stopping spyware and I have been using it prior to these
problems occurring.) I click "YES" and the logon
continues. This only occurs when I attempt to logon to my
home page,my.msn.com; any other url progresses normally.
Even if I do not get the first message I always get the
second. The second message also occurs whenever I return
to my home page from another url. This problem has been
going on for about ten days.

I am running WinXP Pro with SP1 and Internet Explorer 6. I
cannot remeber changing anything that would cause these
problems. I just booted up one day and there they were.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[war17]

Looks like Avenue A spyware is on your computer and wants to start when your
computer starts. Spybot is stopping it.

Have you try to uninstall Avenue A program? Do you have any new program
(similar to Avenue A name) in your Add/Remove Programs list? Uninstall
them. You also run Spybot to remove the program.

 

[Guest]

i also get the same problem, and not surprisingly, we run on pritty much same version.

i get the following pop ups. Spybot-S&D has blocked the download of "Avenue A, Inc."!

this is truly annoying. i have run ad-aware, S & D and it still pops up.

any one who figurs out why this is happening please email me

mailto:[email protected]

 

[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://inetexplorer.mvps.org/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://www.pjwalczak.com/spguard/

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\Explorer]
- DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001

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


--
Hyperlinks are used to ensure advice remains current
Do NOT send me an email. I will NOT see it (thank the spammers and viruses)
_______________________________________
Sandi - Microsoft MVP since 1999 (IE/OE)
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/