IE6 Options locked by Adware

[RodP]

I have IE6SP1 with all the patches, I have Admin rights,
but Internet Options are locked from changes. I get
continuous Ad popups. It seems that Adware has locked my
Internet Options from changes and points to some new
homepage by default that I can't change. IE Ad popups
occur even though IE is not initially running.
I use Search & Destroy regularly. It finds lots of
adware/spyware & deletes them, but they quickly come back.
How can I stop this behaviour?
How can I unlock IE Options?

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

I have IE6SP1 with all the patches, I have Admin rights,
but Internet Options are locked from changes. I get
continuous Ad popups. It seems that Adware has locked my
Internet Options from changes and points to some new
homepage by default that I can't change. IE Ad popups
occur even though IE is not initially running.
I use Search & Destroy regularly. It finds lots of
adware/spyware & deletes them, but they quickly come back.
How can I stop this behaviour?
How can I unlock IE Options?

Close IE.
Open Regedit.
Find the value NoBrowserOptions and remove every instance of it.

You might try this from Mike Burgess first if you use SpyBot:
'Did you by chance run SpyBot's Immunize feature?
If so, you can unlock by unchecking the option to "Protect IE Control
Panel".
See http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=6748

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 needs to be updated before every use, even when just
downloaded. There's also a lot more to do than just those two programs.
CWShredder is also available here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and CWShredder
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.
If trying everything at that site does not fix the problem please post back
in the same thread.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
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http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/