Unwanted Toolbar items

[Guest]

I updated my IE to 6 and ever since, I've been getting
unwanted items on my toolbar... In addition to standard
address bar, I am receiving "starware" and "my web
search"... search areas that I do not want. I can
manually remove these toolbar items by clicking them off
in the VIEW-->TOOLBARS menu, but they always return when
I reopen IE. I've tried even locking the toolbar, but
they always come back. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Sir Ribbit]

I have had similar problems. "My websearch" came along
with something you downloaded. I suggest going
to "Add/remove programs" in the Control Panel and see if
there is a program called "my websearch" or something to
that nature and remove it. This worked for me but I still
have a problem when I try to search from the address bar.
IE6 automatically goes to the "websearch" website for my
search instead of Yahoo, as it did before. You will get
rid of the buttons on the toolbar but I am still trying to
figure out my problem. Good luck. I hope it helps.

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Into and Sir - Start here:

Download HijackThis, free, here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip

Unzip it to any convenient folder, start it then press Scan. Click on
SaveLog when it's finished which will create hijackthis.log. Now click
the Config button, then Misc Tools and click on Generate StartupList.log
which will create Startuplist.txt

Go to Spyware and Hijackware Removal Support, here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/index.php?s=8a236cdf61469fbad3bddbe810be0374&act=SF&f=11

Sign in, then copy and paste both files a message asking for assistance,
Someone will answer with detailed instructions for the removal of your
parasite(s).



For the general hijack case, the best way to start is to get Ad-Aware 6.0,
Build 181 or later, here: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/.
Update and run this regularly to get rid of most "spyware/hijackware" on
your machine. If it has to fix things, be sure to re-boot and rerun
AdAware again and repeat this cycle until you get a clean scan. The reason
is that it may have to remove things which are currently "in use" before it
can then clean up others.

Another excellent program for this purpose is SpyBot Search and Destroy
available here: http://security.kolla.de/ SpyBot Support Forum here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi. I recommend
using both normally. After fixing things with SpyBot S&D, be sure to
re-boot and rerun SpyBot again and repeat this cycle until you get a clean
"no red" scan. The reason is that SpyBot sometimes has to remove things
which are currently "in use" before it can then clean up others.


Note that sometimes you need to make a judgement call about what these
programs report as spyware. See here, for example:
http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm


Once you get this cleaned up, you might want to consider installing the
SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard here to help prevent this kind of thing from
happening in the future:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/spywareblaster.html (Prevents malware Active
X installs) (BTW, SpyWare Blaster is not memory resident ... no CPU or
memory load - but keep it updated) The latest version as of this writing
will prevent installation or prevent the malware from running if it is
already installed, and it provides information and fixit-links for a variety
of parasites.
http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html (Monitors for attempts to
install malware) Both Very Highly Recommended.

See if any of this helps and post back with your results.

--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

 

[Ramesh [MS-MVP]]

As said by other experts already, scan for spyware. If the toolbars are not
removed still:

use ToolbarCop: http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/utils/ToolbarCop.exe

Manual Procedure:
Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe)
Go to the following location and check each GUID sub-key. One of which is
the malware toolbar entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions

Also, check here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions
{check the values in the right-pane to identify the malware toolbar.)

Spot the entry and delete the appropriate key (backup the registry first)

--
Regards,

Ramesh (MS-MVP)
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

~ Please reply to newsgroup ~


I updated my IE to 6 and ever since, I've been getting
unwanted items on my toolbar... In addition to standard
address bar, I am receiving "starware" and "my web
search"... search areas that I do not want. I can
manually remove these toolbar items by clicking them off
in the VIEW-->TOOLBARS menu, but they always return when
I reopen IE. I've tried even locking the toolbar, but
they always come back. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[H Leboeuf]

Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm