Outlook Express closing, search engines not working

[Jeff]

I have a customer with a new machine he purchased from me about 4 weeks
ago that has come back to me for help. He has 2 strange symptoms.
This is Windows XP Home with all applicable patches, up to date
antivirus, (AVG) that runs clean.

1/ In OE if he clicks on "Create Mail" or "Reply" to existing message,
Outlook Express immediately closes without any error message. You can
briefly see the New message panel open before Outlook Express exits.

2/ No matter what search engine you open, Google, Yahoo, Lycos, etc any
search attempted does absolutely nothing. Type in any word at all, click
search, and nothing happens.

Both of the above seemed to start happening the same day. I ran Ad-Aware
and the only thing it found out of the ordinary was something called
"WhenU". Ad-Aware removed it but no difference.

Any Ideas????

 

[PA Bear]

General OE Caveats:

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Disable Background Compacting [N/A in WinXP SP2 and Win2K03] and
frequently perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working
offline". More at http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm.

- Do not attempt to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if
Automatic Compacting is taking place (WinXP SP2 & Win2K03 only).

- Your anti-virus application's email scanning feature can also cause
corruption. Disable it. It provides no additional protection.

But the problem does sound like hijackware. (Are you running Ad-aware SE
v1.06, fully updated? Have you scanned in Safe Mode?)

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/archive/tshoot.html
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/

When all else fails, HijackThis v1.99.1
(http://aumha.net/downloads/hijackthis.zip) is the preferred tool to use.
It will help you to both identify and remove any hijackware/spyware. **Post
your log to http://forums.spywareinfo.com/,
http://castlecops.com/forum67.html or http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30
for expert analysis, not here.**