home page hijacked cant change, help?

[luvvbuzz]

hi there i am using windows 2000 pro and yesterday i was surfing and some website tried to download something on my computer, but my zone alarm alerted me and i blocked it from accessing the internet. now my home page in internet explorer has been hjacked and i am unable to change it. so i reset my internet explorer to default setting, so now the home page is set to msn. but i want it back to blank, but the button that change it in ie settings have been disabled. here is a pic of what i mean.


can anybody help me find out how to reset my hompage to blank? i have done full tests with avg and there was no virus, also i ran spybot and that removed som spyware. but i still cant reset my homepage. any help would be appreciated.

[tgpo]

Some guy on a html support forum suggested to do this to someone that had a similar problem.

Try-> tools/internet options/advanced/restore defaults
and-> tools/internet options/programs/reset web settings
and-> tools/internet options/security/default level

[luvvbuzz]

hi tgpo thanks for your reply. i have just done what you suggested but i still cannot change the homepage, the buttons remain deactivated. but thanks for trying. if anybody has any other suggestions let me know.
thanks.

[Ripper2860]

This typically happens as a result of a trojan/virus (JS Exploit or similar) or Malware. Try the following ...

* If you have Anti-virus package, update your virus files and do a complete scan. If you don't have and A/V solution -- get one. AVG AntiVirus is a good one and and has a free version.

* Use Spybot Search and Destory or AdAware 6 to scan and remove any spyware/malware.

This has solved the matter for me in the past.

[Jayhawk]

Agree with ripper2860. Here's a great link about browser highjacking and possible solutions.

http://gmpservicesinc.com/Articles/hijack.asp

Also make sure you SpyBot Search & Destroy is updated. A lot of new stuff has been added. AVG is a great virus program and in my opinion carries a LOT less overhead than Norton or McAfee. It can be found at www.grisoft.com

ANother program for cleaning out the remnants of all that crap is RegSeeker. It's free and can be found at http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

[luvvbuzz]

thanks for the suggestions, i updated my avg, did a scan, it found nothing. so i re ran spybot and that too found nothing. i have now updated my ie to ie v.6 as i was using ie v.5.5 but i still have the same thing in the picture above where the buttons to change the hompage have been disabled. it is so annoying having to go to the msn.com site everytime i open a window. is there a way i can manually delete ie from my hard drive without damaging my windows installation? if so would it work if i reinstall it?

[Craig Tucker]

Nice sig luvvbuzz, shame you can't hear the sound to go with it

[luvvbuzz]

altogether now
Oh-what-wow
He's the greatest dancer
Oh-what-wow
That I've ever seen
Oh-what-wow
He's the greatest dancer
Oh-what-wow

[BJ_M]

open gpedit.msc (its in your system32 folder)
look at the following picture and select "disabled" as an option (i have it set to "enabled" to prevent it being changed .

[mike1061]

I got this on an XP computer twice, I was able to get rid of it both times buy restoring the computer to the day before. Look in assecories> system tools> system restore. The restore the computer to the day closest to the day you hijacked.
Thanks Mike.

[mike1061]

BJ_M
I looked to do what you sugested, so this dosen't happen again, but I could not find the (system 32 folder). Would you point me in the right direction.
Thanks Mike.
I also did not understand the gpedit.msc part either.

[Craig Tucker]

The system 32 folder is in the windows directory.

[luvvbuzz]

i found the gpedit prog in system 32 and started it up. but i could not find anything in there about changing the homepage, as in the pic u posted above.

[BJ_M]

user configuration -> administrative template -> windows componets -> internet explorer -> ....... follow the pic

[luvvbuzz]

user configuration -> administrative template -> windows componets -> internet explorer -> ....... follow the pic

bj_m you are a star! i have done what you just said and it has solved my problem. thanks ever so much for passing that gem of info on to me, and whoever reads this thread, cheers.

[handyguy]

Its easiest to download free 'adaware' from download.com, run it & it'll get everything back to normal & also scan for any other ad stuff. First time I ran it it found about 85 things.

[luvvbuzz]

Its easiest to download free 'adaware' from download.com, run it & it'll get everything back to normal & also scan for any other ad stuff. First time I ran it it found about 85 things.

i had already done that, and did the same using spybot but it still remained the same. adaware is crap really, it finds easy stuff but its no good for the really tricky stuff imo.

[BJ_M]

user configuration -> administrative template -> windows componets -> internet explorer -> ....... follow the pic

bj_m you are a star! i have done what you just said and it has solved my problem. thanks ever so much for passing that gem of info on to me, and whoever reads this thread, cheers.

i am good! (sometimes) 8)

[devinemi83]

Just edit your registry, thats the quickest way I can think to get away from that page if the anti spyware progs didnt help. This same thing happened to my aunt, she got hers changed to so online gaming site and it wouldnt let her out of it unless she installed more shitware of theirs.

[hech54]

Is this your problem?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Default_Search_URL
res://mshp.dll/sp.html#10213

My IE got hijacked by these a§§holes:
res://mshp.dll/sp.html

I downloaded Spybot and it got rid of the problem AFTER I searched for upgrades for Spybot.

Spybot and CWShredder should keep your system free of these a§§holes.