Windows sometimes automatically launches browser.

[Guest]

I have been noticing lately, that sometimes after I boot up, Windows
automatically launches the browser (by automatically, I mean without my
having clicked on the icon). Futhermore, it usually launches more than one
window, but successively, not all at one time. All windows are going to my
default home page.

Sometimes when I close the windows down, nothing happens, but there have
been times when my computer has 'gone nuts' and one after another window
opens up faster than I can shut them down, even using task mgr. This usually
causes the computer to lock up and I have to unplug it.

I have been unable to find any real pattern to this and I have found no
viruses.

What could be causing this?

Tarman99

 

[Jon Kennedy]

This may be caused by spyware/malware that's gotten installed on
your system. Use Ad-Aware, Windows Defender and/or Spybot Search & Destroy
to remove it.

Windows Defender
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
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/tshoot.html
http://spywarewarrior.com/sww-help.htm

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://forums.spywareinfo.com/
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30
Or one of 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]

Thanks, Jon!
I think you're onto something, I had already disabled the 'Third party
browser extensions' and it seemed to have fixed the problem. However, it
started happening again today after several days on no issues. I went back
into the the toolbox and found that the 'Third Party browser' box was checked
again which leads me to think you are right about the spyware so I'm
downloading some of the ones you recommended to do a search.

There is something that I noticed that may be related: The 'Updates are
downloading' icon appeared after I rebooted after unchecking the 'browser
extensions' box again. It seems to me that I remember seeing that after at
least a few times when this problem occurred. Apparently, my computer is set
to check for updates and automatically download for something, maybe Windows.

I'll post and let you know if I find spyware causing the problem.
Appreciate the help.

 

[Guest]

Well, it apparently wasn't spyware. I used 3 different spyware trackers,
removed a lot of stuff and still had a severe bout of multiple windows
launching. I also noticed something a little different about this latest
episode... I was trying to access this post for more info while the problem
was occurring and not only would another window open up meantime, the window
I was trying to work in kept jumping back to the home page.

It also must not be the 'Third Party Browser Extension' as the box is still
unchecked in Internet Tools.

The winsock tools you provided did not locate any problems which is good.

The problem has stopped for now, but I have no idea why.

Overall, I am still left with a mystery as to why this happens and why it
stops, but I appreciate the info and the useful tools, especailly the spyware
gadgets. Thanks, Jon!