Something keeps changing my homepage

[David Robinson]

Hi,

I keep getting my homepage changed from www.yahoo.co.uk
to www.iwantsearch.com. I try to change it in
Tools>Internet options>change homepage> apply, but
everytime I exit my browser, it comes back to Iwantsearch.
Can anyone help, its so annoying.

Regards,
D. Robinon.

 

[Ray]

As a start you will need to clean your OS from the
spyware. Download CWShredder from
http://209.133.47.200/~merijn/files/CWShredder.exe, Spybot
from http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?
lang=en&page=download and Adaware from
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/. Run them while offline and in
SAFE boot mode. Delete the red entries that Spybot
displays. Reboot. Download SpywareBlaster from
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html,
install it to prevent further problems.

 

[don]

Dear D, If it is any consolation I have a very similar
problem, in that my homepage will arbitrarily change to a
foreign homepage, and an unwanted toolbar. Somehow I was
able to recover my local homepage by re-entering it
sometime. My current theory on this issue is that
Microsoft and/or software geeks have figured a way of
invading your internal software to make your IE browser
point to that website, and disable your ability to re-
create your desired homepage. I had this happen to me
several times a few months back, only it was a microsoft
webpage. If I discover a way to re-enable your access to
your desired homepage I will let you know. Sometimes Find
will allow access to the invading software and you can
delete it. In other words, use FIND to locate Iwantsearch
software and delete anything related to it. Sometimes
this get rid of the invader species, and allows you to re-
enable the desired homepage. (e-mail address removed)

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

Dear D, If it is any consolation I have a very similar
problem, in that my homepage will arbitrarily change to a
foreign homepage, and an unwanted toolbar. Somehow I was
able to recover my local homepage by re-entering it
sometime. My current theory on this issue is that
Microsoft and/or software geeks have figured a way of
invading your internal software to make your IE browser
point to that website, and disable your ability to re-
create your desired homepage. I had this happen to me
several times a few months back, only it was a microsoft
webpage. If I discover a way to re-enable your access to
your desired homepage I will let you know. Sometimes Find
will allow access to the invading software and you can
delete it. In other words, use FIND to locate Iwantsearch
software and delete anything related to it. Sometimes
this get rid of the invader species, and allows you to re-
enable the desired homepage. (e-mail address removed)

First, if you don't have WinXP SP2, get LSP-Fix - a free program to repair
damaged Winsock 2 stacks
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm
save it because you might need to repair the Winsock 2 stacks after removing
the culprit.
For WinXP SP2 this command will restore the Winsock stacks if you can't
connect after clearing the malware.
Then see
How to remove Coolwebsearch and affiliates
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
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