Startpage virus

[mark manning]

I believe my homepage has been hijacked. The default homepage of my IE 6 has
been reset to the GlobalFinder search engine page or at times my default
homepage opens to Luckysearch search engine. I have also been prevented from
choosing a new a new homepage because my General tab under Tools/Internet
Options has been removed completely.
I am using Windows ME. I ran a McAfee virus scan and McAfee identified one
virus on my computer and reported the virus name to be Startpage-Q. McAfee
attempted to clean the virus but apparently was unable to do so. McAfee did
report that it deleted Startpage-Q virus from my computer.
But the problem still remains that I am unable to set my preference for a
homepage because my general tab is still missing from the Internet Options
page.
I have included a few URLs that address similar problems as mine and offer
instructions for solving the problem. My computer knowledge is extremely
limited; therefore I am unsure of the reliability of the instructions that
are given on these pages.
I would appreciate any advice that would help to solve these problems.
http://www.secretarysavvy.com/Articles/Browser.html
http://www.pchell.com/support/globalfinder.shtml
http://www.nerdhelp.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=35&t=549&

Lastly, but very importantly:
Step no. 5 in the instructions on the www.pchell and www.nerdhelp sites that
I have included in the above list involve using the IE Internet Options
General tab. I am concerned about this step because unless steps 1, 2, 3 and
4 restores my General tab I will not have a General tab and will not be able
to complete the instructions.
I would be happy to provide any information that I may not have included in
this posting if it would be helpful to anyone. Thank you.
Mark Manning
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Bill]

I believe my homepage has been hijacked.

Then the solution is simple. Install some spyware/adware detection
software. There are 3 or 4 to choose from. I typically use Webroot's
Spy Sweeper.

 

[Nick FitzGerald]

I believe my homepage has been hijacked. The default homepage of my IE 6 has
been reset to the GlobalFinder search engine page or at times my default
homepage opens to Luckysearch search engine. I have also been prevented from
choosing a new a new homepage because my General tab under Tools/Internet
Options has been removed completely.

Well, you could just dive in and reset it by direct registry editing...

I am using Windows ME. I ran a McAfee virus scan and McAfee identified one
virus on my computer and reported the virus name to be Startpage-Q. McAfee
attempted to clean the virus but apparently was unable to do so. McAfee did
report that it deleted Startpage-Q virus from my computer.

Great -- so it's generic detection and cleaning nuked the malware but in
ion the process removed the best thing we have to tell us precisely what
combination of tricks are likely in place on your machine...

There may be _other things_ "protecting" this or doing other bad stuff
that you would want to know about _before_ making the following change,
but thanks to our friends ar NAI/McAfee we can't easily find out, so...

But the problem still remains that I am unable to set my preference for a
homepage because my general tab is still missing from the Internet Options
page.

There is an Internet Explorer policy to disable the display of the
General Tab (and all the others and/or just specific options) in the
registry. As I understand it, the values you need to find and remove
will be located at either or both of:

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel

and/or

HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel

Specifically the "GeneralTab" value under either or both of those keys
needs to be deleted. The documentation I found said IE needs to be
restarted for the change to take effect but some very limited testing
suggests that does not work (and perhaps a system restart is needed??).

If you are not comfortable doodling around in the registry editor I
suggest you do not try this.

Any other settings under those registry keys should also be carefully
considered as the point of all those settings is to _disable_ something.

Step no. 5 in the instructions on the www.pchell and www.nerdhelp sites that
I have included in the above list involve using the IE Internet Options
General tab. I am concerned about this step because unless steps 1, 2, 3 and
4 restores my General tab I will not have a General tab and will not be able
to complete the instructions.

Assumin there are no other tricks in play, removing the value(s) described
above should fix this particular symptom ("hangover"?) from Startpage-Q,
but be warned there could be other nasties lurking.

I would be happy to provide any information that I may not have included in
this posting if it would be helpful to anyone. Thank you.

If you need any more specific help you are welcome to Email me directly at
this address...

 

[Karel]

I believe my homepage has been hijacked. The default homepage of my IE

6 has

Spybot S&D www.security.kolla.de
Spywareblaster http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Ad-aware www.lavasoft.de
HijackThis http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/
Download update and run.

 

[YK]

Then the solution is simple. Install some spyware/adware detection
software. There are 3 or 4 to choose from. I typically use Webroot's
Spy Sweeper.

Ad-Aware and SpyBot S&D plus SpywareBlaster and HijackThis all *free* are
much better. Too bad you got suckered in to pay for stuff you can do for
free.