IE6 unable to spawn copies of itself

[WonderSlug]

Hello, I just recovered my Windows 2000 SP4 system from a background keylogger
trojan that installed itself. Somehow it managed to bypass my virusscanner,
even though my virus scanner (McAfee) was updated with the June 30, 2004 DAT
files and all updates were applied.

In any case, my IE6 installation on my Windows 2000 SP4 machine began
exhibiting some strange behavior. I tried re-installing IE6 to no avail.

Here's the problem:

If I click on the Quick Launch icon for IE, it starts up fine. I can also
click on the icon multiple times for multiple copies of IE. No problem there.

However, If I already have an instance of IE running, and then click on a web
link or IE desktop shortcut that tries to spawn a new IE window, it locks up
for a long time before finally coming up. I'm talking anywhere from 30
seconds to 1 minute.

This also happens if I click on a URL within an Outlook Express email. The
long delay.

I checked Task Manager, and when this delay occurs, no extra IEXPLORE.EXE
process would be created, which is what I want.

Before the trojan, everything worked fine as I wanted. Now it doesn't.

I tried the REGSVR32 with all the DLLs (urlmon.dll, shdoc, shell32, etc.) and
that didn't fix it.

Re-Installing IE6 didn't fix it.

I checked for the proper registry entries and they are there just fine.

As well, anytime I'm on a web page and click on a link that tries to spawn a
new IE window, it takes that long delay. Never did before. Before, it took
about a second and then came up. I stopped my pop-blockers, so they're not
the problem.

Here's another thing to consider. When this long delay happens, I can
immediately cause the appropriate IE window to spawn by right-clicking on the
primary IE in the Taskbar, bringing up that submenu (Restore, Minimize, Close)
an then clicking away from it. Otherwise it takes that ungodly long time
before coming up normally.

So, in essence, IE is not spawning a new window if one is already present.
Once again, it's not my pop-up blockers, because I've got them temporarily
disabled.

Any thoughts?

 

[WonderSlug]

An update to my post:

It seems the problem is configuration/registry related.

If I log in as a different user (especially Administrator), then IE opens new
windows just fine, and so do shortcuts and links in OE.

It's only this particular user, which is me. So, I'm thinking it's something
in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER area when I'm logged in as the account with the IE
open new window problem.

At least we know it isn't a corrupt DLL, or EXE, just registry related.


Hello, I just recovered my Windows 2000 SP4 system from a background keylogger
trojan that installed itself. Somehow it managed to bypass my virusscanner,
even though my virus scanner (McAfee) was updated with the June 30, 2004 DAT
files and all updates were applied.

In any case, my IE6 installation on my Windows 2000 SP4 machine began
exhibiting some strange behavior. I tried re-installing IE6 to no avail.

Here's the problem:

If I click on the Quick Launch icon for IE, it starts up fine. I can also
click on the icon multiple times for multiple copies of IE. No problem there.

However, If I already have an instance of IE running, and then click on a web
link or IE desktop shortcut that tries to spawn a new IE window, it locks up
for a long time before finally coming up. I'm talking anywhere from 30
seconds to 1 minute.

This also happens if I click on a URL within an Outlook Express email. The
long delay.

I checked Task Manager, and when this delay occurs, no extra IEXPLORE.EXE
process would be created, which is what I want.

Before the trojan, everything worked fine as I wanted. Now it doesn't.

I tried the REGSVR32 with all the DLLs (urlmon.dll, shdoc, shell32, etc.) and
that didn't fix it.

Re-Installing IE6 didn't fix it.

I checked for the proper registry entries and they are there just fine.

As well, anytime I'm on a web page and click on a link that tries to spawn a
new IE window, it takes that long delay. Never did before. Before, it took
about a second and then came up. I stopped my pop-blockers, so they're not
the problem.

Here's another thing to consider. When this long delay happens, I can
immediately cause the appropriate IE window to spawn by right-clicking on the
primary IE in the Taskbar, bringing up that submenu (Restore, Minimize, Close)
an then clicking away from it. Otherwise it takes that ungodly long time
before coming up normally.

So, in essence, IE is not spawning a new window if one is already present.
Once again, it's not my pop-up blockers, because I've got them temporarily
disabled.

Any thoughts?

 

[Don Varnau]

Hi,
Might be malware other that the program that you found?

BHODemon 1.0 from http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm is a good
program to start with. BHO Demon makes it easy to disable BHOs. It does not
remove the malware.

Then, work through the solutions (CWShredder, Ad-aware, Spybot) at
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm Also note the security tips on that
page.

Additional information at:
The Parasite Fight http://www.aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
Bugs, Glitches & Stuffups: http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm

You've re-registered the DLLs which often cause the problem, but look for
other possible solutions at:
http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/nolinks.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=281679
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers2.htm#hyperlinks
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers.htm#new_window

Hope this helps,
Don