Address bar suddenly needs "http://" in front of domain

[Joe]

Up until two weeks ago I never had to type in "http://" in
front of any domain name in IE's address bar. Anytime I
just typed in the domain name with or without "www", it
worked with no problems - the web page would appear. Now
all of a sudden, when I type in any domain WITHOUT
the "http://", all I get is "Page Cannot Be Displayed"
and "C://Windows/System32/notfound.html" in the address
bar. What's going on ???? I noticed this problem after
entering a bunch of websites with annoying pop-up ads -
it's almost as if one of these sites screwed with my IE -
don't know. I marked "yes" for "AutoComplete", but this
doesn't do anything. The only web address that pops up
without me having to type in "http://" first is my
homepage, "MSN.com".

 

[Jon Kennedy]

See this site for possible help: http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers_8.htm#extension

 

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

The standard answer is to enable auto-complete, but this recent uptick
in identical postings seem to indicate that this is a symptom of new
spyware.

SpybotSD - Search & Destroy by PepiMK Software:
http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download

Adaware by Lavasoft:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

(Enable auto-complete in Internet Options, Content tab, Auto-complete
button, check auto-complete for web addresses.)

 

[tanya]

I had a client with this problem.

Some site you visited placed 2 files on your computer, notfound.html
(which is a bogus search page) and the other is privacypolicy.html
(not sure on that name as I deleted it before I started documenting
this problem).

The site then changed your registry settings so that when ever you do
not place "http://" in front of an address it sends you to the
notfound.html file on your pc.

Here is the fix:

Using the registry editor, go to the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\URL\ key.

Under it are 2 keys.

DefaultPrefix

Name: (Default)
Value: notfound.html

Change the value to: http://

The next key is Prefixes

Name: www.
Value: notfound.html

Change the value to: http://

Exit the registry editor.

Now using windows explorer go to the windows/system32 directory.

Delete the notfound.html file. There may be another file there with a
name like privacypolicy.html, it can be deleted also.

 

[H Leboeuf]

I would see if some parasites is the cause.

Let AD-Aware Scan your system for advertising Spyware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com

or:

SpyBot-S&D
http://security.kolla.de/