Unwanted IE default homepage

  • Thread starter Thread starter hal
  • Start date Start date
H

hal

While brousing with IE, I accepted an offer by idg.search
to do search. Since then it planted itself as default
IE home page. Remove it and then next time use IE there
it is again as home page. Can't figure how to remove it.
Active tasks doesn't show it and can't find with search.

Seems about same time problem: Win startup stalls
with "windows cannot find "symbols 4 squares,circle with
stem out top, 4 squares". Clk OK and startup finishes
but next time same msg stops startup.

Could these be related and is the a solution. Appreciate
any help
 
-----Original Message-----
While brousing with IE, I accepted an offer by idg.search
to do search. Since then it planted itself as default
IE home page. Remove it and then next time use IE there
it is again as home page. Can't figure how to remove it.
Active tasks doesn't show it and can't find with search.

Seems about same time problem: Win startup stalls
with "windows cannot find "symbols 4 squares,circle with
stem out top, 4 squares". Clk OK and startup finishes
but next time same msg stops startup.

Could these be related and is the a solution. Appreciate
any help
.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand; Go to the home page you
want and go to tools/internet options/ and at the top
you'll see home page - click on "use current" and that
will set your new home page.
 
You've hijacked. get SpyBot Search & Destroy
www.security.kolla.de and it will fix your problem.

Use Google for ALL searches, works better, returns honest
search and won't hijack you,


| While brousing with IE, I accepted an offer by idg.search
| to do search. Since then it planted itself as default
| IE home page. Remove it and then next time use IE there
| it is again as home page. Can't figure how to remove it.
| Active tasks doesn't show it and can't find with search.
|
| Seems about same time problem: Win startup stalls
| with "windows cannot find "symbols 4 squares,circle with
| stem out top, 4 squares". Clk OK and startup finishes
| but next time same msg stops startup.
|
| Could these be related and is the a solution. Appreciate
| any help
 
Adaware, a program found at lavasoftusa.com can help.Download it and if
you're using a browser that allows popups, run it often. Other browsers
like Opera can be cofigured to disallow all popups.
 
I also have a similar situation. I have been hijacked by something that sets my default homepage to "uslanmaz" which is a different language altogether. I also get a popup box that lays on top of all my other open windows that just says "click here". I must close these two windows manually before I can see any other of my open windows. AdAware and Search and Destroy are installed on my system and run fine, but do not recognize the problem. I have done sweeps and defrags and emptied out my cookies and everything seems clear, but the problem persists. I have more than one person set up as logon I.D.s and they all get the same thing at the same time. Any ideas?
 
I too had this...

What it is, is this...a program has stuck an XML file somewhere on your
machine, this file contains lists of various websites. You need to locate
this file and delete it and your problem will go away. I doubt the file will
be called the same thing, however the best way to locate it is to do a
search for all XML (*.xml) files on your hard drive...look for the dates
they were modified and open them up in notepad and look for the web address
you keep getting sent to. If that address appears in the file...bingo your
problem is solved. As a guidence the file I removed was located in the
system32 directory...but if you search anywhere within the Windows directory
you're likely to find it...also check your user folder.

Good luck and let me know how you got on...or if you need further help.



Mike said:
I also have a similar situation. I have been hijacked by something that
Click to expand...
sets my default homepage to "uslanmaz" which is a different language
altogether. I also get a popup box that lays on top of all my other open
windows that just says "click here". I must close these two windows
manually before I can see any other of my open windows. AdAware and Search
and Destroy are installed on my system and run fine, but do not recognize
the problem. I have done sweeps and defrags and emptied out my cookies and
everything seems clear, but the problem persists. I have more than one
person set up as logon I.D.s and they all get the same thing at the same
time. Any ideas?
 
Thanks for the help, but I wasn't able to find the right one, if that's where the problem lies...I did a search for all .xml files like you suggested, and came up with 403 of them. So I sorted by folder, and ignored the ones I figured would be safe, like the ones in my PCHEALTH/HELPCTR folder, and my HEWLITT PACKARD folder for my printer, and that sort of thing...and MUSICMATCH...do you think that WINAMP3 might be the culprit? There were a lot in that folder that I didn't check... So anyway, I opened close to 50 of the other ones up in notepad and did a "find" function looking for "http:", thinking that it must have that code in there if it's opening up a new browser window and going to that website on it's own, but couldn't find anything. I even did a few looking for "www", with no results that weren't something I recognized... Any other ideas where to look? I should have mentioned this: I am getting this at random...the "click here" box shows up, then a couple seconds later, my browser window opens, and goes to that www.uslanmaz.com website, no matter how many times I reset my home page or the fact that I have an IE Home Page Shield working...very frustrating!! Thanks for all your help, by the way...

----- Dan wrote: -----

I too had this...

What it is, is this...a program has stuck an XML file somewhere on your
machine, this file contains lists of various websites. You need to locate
this file and delete it and your problem will go away. I doubt the file will
be called the same thing, however the best way to locate it is to do a
search for all XML (*.xml) files on your hard drive...look for the dates
they were modified and open them up in notepad and look for the web address
you keep getting sent to. If that address appears in the file...bingo your
problem is solved. As a guidence the file I removed was located in the
system32 directory...but if you search anywhere within the Windows directory
you're likely to find it...also check your user folder.

Good luck and let me know how you got on...or if you need further help.



Mike said:
I also have a similar situation. I have been hijacked by something that
Click to expand...
sets my default homepage to "uslanmaz" which is a different language
altogether. I also get a popup box that lays on top of all my other open
windows that just says "click here". I must close these two windows
manually before I can see any other of my open windows. AdAware and Search
and Destroy are installed on my system and run fine, but do not recognize
the problem. I have done sweeps and defrags and emptied out my cookies and
everything seems clear, but the problem persists. I have more than one
person set up as logon I.D.s and they all get the same thing at the same
time. Any ideas?
 
Well, that was a good idea, but it didn't find anything. My system was completely clear of those types of files...any other ideas? Anybody? I'm at a complete loss....

----- Frank P. wrote: -----

go to this link and download the CWS Shredder. http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
--

Frank

scanned with Norton Antivirus 2003
________________________________________________________
 
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