lycos hijack

  • Thread starter Thread starter Charles Swenson
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Charles Swenson

Lycos has hijacked my IE search function. It also directs me to lycos
when I type an address in the address bar and use ctrl/enter to add the http
and dot com . I think it came in with another piece of software and it left
a program remove in the Add or remove programs and I removed it there but it
must have left a registry setting behind. I have done a search for the word
lycos on the complete computer and it does not find it anywhere.
If anyone can help me fix this I will be greatly appreciative.

Thanks

Chas
 
Charles said:
Lycos has hijacked my IE search function. It also directs me to
lycos when I type an address in the address bar and use ctrl/enter to
add the http and dot com . I think it came in with another piece of
software and it left a program remove in the Add or remove programs
and I removed it there but it must have left a registry setting
behind. I have done a search for the word lycos on the complete
computer and it does not find it anywhere.
If anyone can help me fix this I will be greatly appreciative.
Click to expand...

First - turn on that firewall...
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/home/using/howto/homenet/icf.asp
If you are getting "Messenger Service" popups - this will also remedy those.


Make sure you have all the updates (critical) installed from:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
(Scan for updates, Review and Install)


Turn off your System Restore before you start doing the rest
of this cleanup. Sometimes the virus/trojan/etc gets backed up.
After you cleanup fully, turn it back on!!!
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310405


Get rid of the spy/ad/mal-ware..
(Yes - using MORE than one of these.. I recommend at least the first
three.)

Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/

Lavasoft AdAware
http://www.lavasoft.de

Hijack This!
(For browser Hijacks - also look into CWS Shredder)
http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/

And Assortment of Others:
http://www.merijn.org/downloads.html


After you cleanup your PC somewhat of spy/ad/mal-ware, verify your antivirus
software is updated and run a full scan of your computer. If you have no
antivirus software - get one NOW!
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php


Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to about
80-120MB..
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 80MB and 120MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10 minutes
or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.


Turn back on your System Restore at this point!!


Uninstall any software you do not use often/ever. (If you have something
installed but never use it, uninstall it. If you go through Control
Panel -> Add/Remove Programs and see things you seldom if ever use, it is to
your advantage to remove it.)


Update all of your hardware drivers (find the manufacturers of your video
card, motherboard, sound card, modem, network card and so on - go to their
web pages, look for Windows XP drivers there and download/install the newest
ones.)
 
Charles Swenson said:
Lycos has hijacked my IE search function. It also directs me to lycos
when I type an address in the address bar and use ctrl/enter to add the http
and dot com . I think it came in with another piece of software and it left
a program remove in the Add or remove programs and I removed it there but it
must have left a registry setting behind. I have done a search for the word
lycos on the complete computer and it does not find it anywhere.
If anyone can help me fix this I will be greatly appreciative.

Thanks

Chas
Click to expand...

"lycos sidesearch" is a Spyware Hijacker.

SpyBot Search & Destroy can dipose of it completely for you.
SpyBot is available here: http://security.kolla.de
More info on how to deal and protect yourself from Spyware Parasites.
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

Do *not* turn off System Restore at any time as it will "flush" your
Restore Folder and leave with *no* Restore Points.
Do so to recover from extereme circumstances only_

Hope this helps - post back if you need further assistance.

HTH

--
siljaline

MS - MVP Windows IE/OE
______________________

(Reply to group, as return address
is invalid - that we may all benefit)
 
"lycos sidesearch" is a Spyware Hijacker.

SpyBot Search & Destroy can dipose of it completely for you.
SpyBot is available here: http://security.kolla.de
More info on how to deal and protect yourself from Spyware Parasites.
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

Do *not* turn off System Restore at any time as it will "flush" your
Restore Folder and leave with *no* Restore Points.
Do so to recover from extereme circumstances only_
Click to expand...

I disagree with the "Do *not* turn off System Restore at any time" - the
results you give are accurate, however, if someone has reached the point
many of these people have - turning it off and back on will insure they do
not restore their computer to an earlier date with the problem, will clean
up any "backed up" worms/trojans, will correct any problem they may not have
even known their system restore had and so on.

System Restore is a fickle beast - I find it better to (if my system has
been working properly for some time) "flush" what's in there, make a manual
restore point and move on for a while on occassion. It cleans up and
doesn't hurt anything.
 
Shenan Stanley said:
I disagree with the "Do *not* turn off System Restore at any time" - the
results you give are accurate, however, if someone has reached the point
many of these people have - turning it off and back on will insure they do
not restore their computer to an earlier date with the problem, will clean
up any "backed up" worms/trojans, will correct any problem they may not have
even known their system restore had and so on.

System Restore is a fickle beast - I find it better to (if my system has
been working properly for some time) "flush" what's in there, make a manual
restore point and move on for a while on occassion. It cleans up and
doesn't hurt anything.
Click to expand...

While it is well documented that viruses like to reside in Restore, thus your
statement
that a "flush" would be prudent. Agreed, as a Restore "rollback" *if* it were a
virus,
would re-release the worm, et al, into the O/S.

"adware/spyware" is not known - AFAIK - to "hide" in Restore.
As this is a new-users group, I find it somewhat reckless to recommend turning off
Restore. Be reminded that Restore works on a "FIFO" basis, first-in-first-out, thus
Restore maintains its own checks and balances by itself without any user
intervention.

http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/libra...y/en-us/dnwxp/html/windowsxpsystemrestore.asp


--
siljaline

MS - MVP Windows IE/OE
______________________

(Reply to group, as return address
is invalid - that we may all benefit)
 
Thanks for your replies , I run Zone Alarm Pro and AVG anti virus ,
both with latest updates , I have and run AdAware Professional and Spybot
and update them regularly including today , but I still have Lycos grabbing
my browser when I use the Address ctrl/return to add the http and dot com to
the address window. Any other ideas will be greatly appreciated.

I'.m reasonably sure this is not a security problem as it came in with
another software program and I allowed the installation , the problem seems
to be with the uninstall program it left behind , it just didn't uninstall
some portion of the program or some registry setting and I can't find what
it left behind and delete it .

Chas
 
Charles Swenson said:
Thanks for your replies , I run Zone Alarm Pro and AVG anti virus ,
both with latest updates , I have and run AdAware Professional and Spybot
and update them regularly including today , but I still have Lycos grabbing
my browser when I use the Address ctrl/return to add the http and dot com to
the address window. Any other ideas will be greatly appreciated.

I'.m reasonably sure this is not a security problem as it came in with
another software program and I allowed the installation , the problem seems
to be with the uninstall program it left behind , it just didn't uninstall
some portion of the program or some registry setting and I can't find what
it left behind and delete it .

Chas
Click to expand...

Yes, Chas - we can do more, if Ad-aware and SpyBot are not picking up
the hijack - run "Hijack This" Info and FAQ:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

SpyBot "should" detect the hijack - this update notice clearly indicates such.
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=updatehistory&detail=2003-10-10

No matter - please run Hijack This and post your logs to the experts at Spyware
Info.
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/

Regards & good luck.

--
siljaline

MS - MVP Windows IE/OE
______________________

(Reply to group, as return address
is invalid - that we may all benefit)
 
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