Unwanted items on screen when IE is used.

[Guest]

When IE is opened, I have an unwanted toolbar (shopping and information
search bar) on my screen that I would like to get rid of. In my favorites I
also have some folders that appear at the top of the list. These are also
unwanted but I cannot delete them. When I go to the screen for
saving/organizing favorites, they do not appear so I am unable to delete them.

I would appreciate any suggestions anyone could give. Thank you so much.

 

[Jon Kennedy]

This may be 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://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Good sites on how to install and use Spybot -
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/tutorial/index.html
http://tomcoyote.com/SPYBOT/index1.php

Also download a winsock repair tool, to have just in case cleaning up
anything found breaks it -

Winsock repair tools:
LSPFix- all versions of Windows http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.zip
Winsock2 Fix- Win98, ME
http://www.bu.edu/pcsc/internetaccess/winsock2fix.html
LavaSoft- all versions of Windows-
http://digital-solutions.co.uk/lavasoft/whndnfix.zip

More information here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/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.

Or if you have IE 6 SP-2 you can do this within the browser:
How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;883256

If all the above fails, then the problem could be something new that the
spyware cleaners above don't have in their databases yet. In that case....
HijackThis direct download:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip
Tutorial on how to use HijackThis:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/htlogtutorial.html
Then post it's output log to the forum here for analysis and feedback by the
parasite experts:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/
Or the other HijackThis Logs forums listed here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/forums.html

Or try this program to get some of the most nasty malware:
CWShredder direct download:
http://aumha.org/downloads/cwshredder.zip

An alternate resource for all of this and more:
http://www.aumha.org/secure.htm

 

[Guest]

I have used Spybot and it does not get rid of the items, either on the
screeen or in favorites. The source of the problem on the screen seems to be
http://lop.com/passthrough/newpass2.html. To make matters worse, when it
appears I am not able to get rid of it by clicking the box in the right hand
corner.

 

[Jon Kennedy]

See this site for specific removal of the lop.com pest:
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/data/lop.htm
or..
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/lop.html

If no joy, use the other free tools I mentioned in my previous post. Not
all spyware cleaners can catch everything, so it's best to use two or
three - one will get what the other misses.

 

[Guest]

I think the info on lop.com night help but I'm not able to download it. Each
time I get a message saying that my security settings prevent the download.
I have disable MacAfee and reduced my security setting in Internet Options.
What else do I need to do? Will I have to disable Spybot, Spyblaster, etc.
I'm not sure I even know how to do that. Is there an easy way to know what
to do or is it all trial and error?

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[Guest]

I just did it! Yippee....Thank you so much, Jon, for your help. This is a
great way for those of us who don't know what we are doing to get help and I
appreciate the time you've taken to help.

And congrats on the Tar Heels.......here's wishing them the best on Monday
night. I'll be watching in SC. Thanks again.

 

[Jon Kennedy]

You're most welcome, MissKitty! Glad to hear your problem has been
resolved. Thank YOU for the feedback that your problem has been fixed -
much appreciated and not all that common.

GO HEELS! <g>

 

[Guest]

My IE taskbar has disappeared...no matter what i do, click and drag, right
click, nothing brings the standard buttons back, the only thing thats working
is the yahoo toolbar everything else is clicked but you can't see it can
anyone help??

 

[Jon Kennedy]

Toolbars missing in Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer

Try running this little program:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/ToolbarRepair.Exe
This little app should repair the registry entries that have become fouled
up.

Or, manually, courtesy of Doug Knox, MVP:

Close any open Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer windows.

Click Start, Run and enter REGEDIT

Go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar

There are 3 sub keys: Explorer, ShellBrowser, WebBrowser

In each of these sub-keys is the entry for ITBarLayout

For IE Toolbars: The WebBrowser Sub-key directly affects IE.
For Windows Explorer Toolbars: The Explorer Sub-key directly affects
Explorer.
The ShellBrowser sub-key may affect IE as well. Its effect on IE and
Windows Explorer is unknown at this time, so if the first option doesn't
work, delete the ITBarLayout value here as well.

Choose the relevant sub-key and right click where it says ITBarLayout and
select Delete.

The deleted value will automatically be recreated for you.

You may want to right click on the main key (above) and select Export. This
will allow you to backup the contents of the whole key, including subkeys.