Home page changing

Pat Kelly · Post by **Pat Kelly** » 12 Aug 2005 1:06 am

Some program or external agent is continually changing my default home page. How do I stop it? How do identify the culprit? thanks for any help.

Harry Dietrich · Post by **Harry Dietrich** » 12 Aug 2005 1:20 am

In your search engine, type in "home page hijacking" and see what you can do to get rid of the problem. It happened to me 2 times, one time I got rid of the problem, but the second time I could not. They put a hidden file in your REGISTRY, and it's a bear to find it. To solve the dilema I downloaded Mozilla Firefox, and haven't had any problems since.

Good Luck

Harry<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Harry Dietrich on 12 August 2005 at 02:23 AM.]</p></FONT>

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 Aug 2005 2:16 am

The free Microsoft Anti-Spyware program has a utility to restore the home page, if it's hijacked.

I don't have the link to the download but either a google search or go to the microsoft site and you should be able to find it.

I've been using this "beta" program since it first came out and it's doing a good job with spyware.

I also have Firefox but for all it's publicity I find it doesn't block all the pop ups, etc. It will not support all of the Frontpage generated items such as the buttons that FP will generate. It will not support all the features of the RoadRunner home page.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 12 Aug 2005 7:36 am

The Microsoft "Beta" is a great utility, but don't be surprised if you have to re-install it. The version I had expired August 1st on all my machines. Had to go fetch a new copy and update. It still does a great job though. If you can find "HijaakThis" it helps in removing rogue processes too.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 12 Aug 2005 8:16 am

Here is the home page for Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Download, install and update it (File > Check for updates), then run a full system scan.

Wiz

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 Aug 2005 11:47 am

Ray, you must keep it updated. My "beta" version has never "expired". I've got automatic update "baloon" notices that updates or a new version was available. I would click on the notice and it would update.

The first "beta" version did not have the home page recovery option, I just noticed it in the latest version.

Les Pierce · Post by **Les Pierce** » 12 Aug 2005 8:15 pm

There is a very good program called UnHackMe. It has a 30 free trial, and is completely functional during that time. It found a worm in a computer I was working on, and removed when nothing else would.

It also continues to monitor for incoming trojans, etc, about every minute or so, in the background. Might be just what you need.

Les

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 13 Aug 2005 7:23 pm

Reinstall Windows and make a backup with DriveImage 7. Next time this happens, it will take less than 10 minutes to reinstall EVERYTHING on you system. Of course, you need to make a new backup each time you install a new program. But that only takes about 3 minutes.

------------------
Gary Shepherd

Carter D-10

www.16tracks.com

Ron Victoria · Post by **Ron Victoria** » 16 Aug 2005 5:54 pm

I keep this handy as I've seen this problem posted elsewhere. What you have is called "homepage snatchers". Here's a simple fix. Click start>>>run, and type in msconfig. Click OK. Select startup. Look for a line that has "regedit" or "reg" in it and a filename that ends in .tmp. Uncheck it. That should take care of it. Email me if it works.
Ron