Please help with browser problem

[Connie]

My Mom rec'd a Compaq computer from my stepson.
Everything seems to be running fine. She installed AOL
and is able to send and receive email, but every time she
enters a web address, or anything else in the address
window, another address is defaulting. I found this same
address (starts out like res:/windows\etc.) under the
general tab in "Internet Options" under Home page: "Use
Current". Everytime we try to change the address and
click apply, it goes back to that same address. She
doesn't have a Windows 98 restore disk from the previous
owner. I've tried asking AOL, and they said it
was "Internet Explorer" problem. Does anyone have a
possible fix? (I live 200 miles from her and she can
barely turn the machine on and off without a lot of
difficulty.--I went to her house last Saturday to try and
show her how to use the aol; that's when I discovered
there's a problem. Thank you so much if anyone can help!

 

[Jon Kennedy]

Changes to the home page are caused by spyware/malware that's gotten installed on your system. Use Ad-Aware and/or Spybot Search & Destroy to remove it.

Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
Spybot: http://security.kolla.de/
(Good site on how to install and use Spybot - http://www.tomcoyote.org/SPYBOT/)

More information here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/ - runs a little script when loading page to check for common parasites

If no joy, in IE go to Tools...Internet Options...Advanced tab, Browsing section, uncheck "Enable third-party browser extensions", click Apply, click Okay, reboot. If that solves your problem, then more troubleshooting is needed to find out exactly which program, or Browser Helper Object (BHO) is causing this problem. You don't want to leave it at that, as some BHOs are useful or necessary - like Adobe Acrobat for reading .pdf files or an essential component of Norton AV. Get BHODemon - http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm - read all about BHOs. Disable all items, and then gradually replace one or two at a time to narrow down the culprit.

See this site for more information:
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers.htm#home_page

In addition to the info there, check your StartUp folder for any programs that look suspicious. If no joy, go to Start, Run, type in "msconfig" (no quotes), click Okay, go to the StartUp tab, and look for any line there that look suspicious. You probably went to a web site or clicked on something that made the additions/changes to your registry or added a script to your system that caused this problem. This can also be caused by running an email attachment or clicking on something in a HTML email.

You may also want to check out StartPage Guard -
http://pjwalczak.com/spguard/index.php
StartPage Guard protects your PC from cyberscam, by monitoring status of your internet browser StartPage and preventing it from any unauthorized changes.

More information here: http://www.cexx.org/hphijack.htm