Can't search from address bar

  • Thread starter Thread starter fgtnfire
  • Start date Start date
F

fgtnfire

I need help!! For some reason I can no longer search from
address bar. If I put find chicago it comes up with
following in address bar and page is not found.

http:///? find chicago. It does this for anything I
search for. I have tried uninstalling, reseting IE but no
luck. I have Windows xp home edition and upgraded awhile
ago. It worked fine at one time, but no further. Dell
tells me to reinstall windows but that is their typical
response. I can live without it but would like it to
work again. Thanks
 
Check your Internet Settings. Click on the tools barand
select Internet Options. Click on the Advanced tab.
Scroll down to the Search from the address bar section.
Make sure the value is not set to Do not search from
address bar. Option 3 or 4 would work best.
 
fgtnfire said:
I need help!! For some reason I can no longer search from
address bar. If I put find chicago it comes up with
following in address bar and page is not found.

http:///? find chicago. It does this for anything I
search for. I have tried uninstalling, reseting IE but no
luck. I have Windows xp home edition and upgraded awhile
ago. It worked fine at one time, but no further. Dell
tells me to reinstall windows but that is their typical
response. I can live without it but would like it to
work again. Thanks
Click to expand...

First eliminate any scumware.
See
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other
won't. Also, each need to be updated before every use, even when just
downloaded.

If trying everything at that site does not fix the problem please post back
in the same thread.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP IE/OE
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Reply to Newsgroup. I won't answer email
Protect Your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/
 
Hi Fgtnfire - Sounds like this might be a variant of some malware called
CoolWebSearch. Do the following:

Download and run: http://www.merijn.org/files/cwshredder.zip to remove the
parasite. Be sure to close all instances of IE and OE.

Then download and run:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/iegentabs.reg to restore your
tabs and remove any restrictions that the parasite has put in place.

Be sure that you also download and install hotfix Q816093, here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=816093#appliesto

which blocks the exploit upon which this parasite family depends.

However, this also indicates that you may have acquired some other malware
along the way. If you go to this page at Jim Eshelman's site, here:
http://aumha.org/a/noads.htm and wait a little bit (be patient), an analysis
of a number of possible parasites on your machine will be made to help you
identify and remove them. NOTE: You will need to disable Ad Blocking in Zone
Alarm 3.x, if present or any other Ad Blocking software which interferes
with Java Scripting for this scan to work. You should get a message between
the two lines of **** giving the results of the scan.

Get Ad-Aware 6.0, Build 181 or later, here:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/. Update and run this regularly
to get rid of most "spyware/hijackware" on your machine. If it has to fix
things, be sure to re-boot and rerun AdAware again and repeat this cycle
until you get a clean scan. The reason is that it may have to remove
things which are currently "in use" before it can then clean up others.

Another excellent program for this purpose is SpyBot Search and Destroy
available here: http://security.kolla.de/ SpyBot Support Forum here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi. I recommend
using both normally. After fixing things with SpyBot S&D, be sure to
re-boot and rerun SpyBot again and repeat this cycle until you get a clean
"no red" scan. The reason is that SpyBot sometimes has to remove things
which are currently "in use" before it can then clean up others.

Note that sometimes you need to make a judgement call about what these
programs report as spyware. See here, for example:
http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm



If they don't fix it then start here:

Download HijackThis, free, here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip (Always download a
new fresh copy of HijackThis [and CWShredder also] - It's updated
frequently.)

Unzip it to any convenient folder, start it then press Scan. Click on
SaveLog when it's finished which will create hijackthis.log. Now click the
Config button, then Misc Tools and click on Generate StartupList.log which
will create Startuplist.txt

Then go to one of the following forums:

Spyware and Hijackware Removal Support, here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/index.php?s=8a236cdf61469fbad3bddbe810be0374&act=SF&f=11

or Net-Integration here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-...86d536d57b5f65b6e40c55365e;act=ST;f=27;t=6949

or Tom Coyote here:
http://tomcoyote.org/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=495&s=2c6e92805e310b519b9fa61cc7098fba

Sign in, then copy and paste both files into a message asking for
assistance, Someone will answer with detailed instructions for the removal
of your parasite(s).




Once you get this cleaned up, you might want to consider installing the
SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard here to help prevent this kind of thing from
happening in the future:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/spywareblaster.html (Prevents malware Active
X installs) (BTW, SpyWare Blaster is not memory resident ... no CPU or
memory load - but keep it updated) The latest version as of this writing
will prevent installation or prevent the malware from running if it is
already installed, and it provides information and fixit-links for a variety
of parasites.

http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html (Monitors for attempts to
install malware) Both Very Highly Recommended


--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



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