search from address bar yields "cannot be displayed" page

[JJ Runnion]

speaking of IE problems, now that the main one is fixed (thanx again) --

i am no longer able to search from the address bar, though it is enabled in Internet settings for IE 6.x running win2000 ....

the entries are converted to "http:///[whatever search term is entered] "

(note the third "/") which makes me think that IE is converting the entry ???


thanx in advance ...

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

speaking of IE problems, now that the main one is fixed (thanx again)
--

i am no longer able to search from the address bar, though it is
enabled in Internet settings for IE 6.x running win2000 ....

the entries are converted to "http:///[whatever search term is
entered] "

(note the third "/") which makes me think that IE is converting the
entry ???


thanx in advance ...

First eliminate any scumware.
See
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
especially
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch

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
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

 

[Guest]

First of all, I think the root cause to all the problems where searching in the address bar results in "http///?%20" is spyware or adware. Removal of the adware or spyware tends to leave your system kinda beat up.

Others will post about how to clean your machine, I'm simply going to tell you how to clean up the mess left behind. You should first reset IE to default settings using the following registry fix. It's TIP #13 http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/IEFAQ.htm. However, you may find that this doesn't completely resolve the problem as in my case.

Here is what I had to do to get searching in the address bar back using the "?".

There is usually a setting at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\URLSearchHooks\{CFBFAE00-17A6-11D0-99CB-00C04FD64497

I have found that everytime adware gets installed that hijacks the search in the address bar, that it changes that registry setting to include an "_" like this "_{CFBFAE00-17A6-11D0-99CB-00C04FD64497}

I ran the registry fix suggested above but it didn't remove the entry with the "_", is simply adds the correct one back in addition. So I went to the URLSearchHooks key and deleted the bad entry, closed all my browsers and BAM, it worked

I hope that helps.