Rogue program

[Jim]

My daughter must have accepted a download from a site that
she was visiting. The problem that I have is that
something called fastwebfinder.com keeps appearing in my
explorer window. I have reset my home page using the
tools - options menu. I have also removed any entry under
regedit. However as I do not know what the program was
called that was installed I cannot trace or delete it!
Everytime I reboot my computer the wretched thing is back
again making it my home page and putting three entries
under Favorites.

Can anyone tell me how to get rid without having to re-
format my hard drive? I have also ran virus check and
there is not a virus.

Thanks
..

 

[Joe]

the only thing I could find by searching the web was to
install "Spybot" which seems to have a program called
hijack this which when run can take care of these kinds of
problems.

Joe

 

[Patrick Keenan]

My daughter must have accepted a download from a site that
she was visiting. The problem that I have is that
something called fastwebfinder.com keeps appearing in my
explorer window. I have reset my home page using the
tools - options menu. I have also removed any entry under
regedit. However as I do not know what the program was
called that was installed I cannot trace or delete it!
Everytime I reboot my computer the wretched thing is back
again making it my home page and putting three entries
under Favorites.

Can anyone tell me how to get rid without having to re-
format my hard drive? I have also ran virus check and
there is not a virus.

Thanks

Use SpyBot or Ad Aware:
http://www.safer-networking.org/
www.lavasoftusa.com

Install and run one or the other (or both) with updates and they should rid
you of that pest and the others you haven't noticed yet.

HTH
-pk

 

[tude3puma]

This is most certainly a form of spyware. It has an
executable quite possibly in your document and settings
start up menu.

Search your PC for the executable, also find out what
site she may have been to, it probably asked her to
install a safe item, 9 out of 10 times misleading.

Good luck.

Richie NY

 

[Scott]

I know what you are going through. I had the same type
problem with a program called Clear Search.

I used two things:
Ad-Aware (www.adaware.com). This is a free program, and
helped a lot.
The second was McAfee. Their software (for home users)
detects these.

I also wound up going to the web site for Clear Search
(revealed to me by McAfee) and following their uninstall
directions.

It is tedious to remove these, but not altogether
impossible.

Hope this is helpful,

Scott