My internet explorer was somehow "hijacked", it always takes me to sites I do not want to visit, changed my default homepage and disabled "options" under "tools", and pop-ups are like wild fire.
I have tried all the antivirus software, none of them can remove these despicable little programs completely. I got so angry that I actually called one of the companies that makes these spyware, and BTW, they call themselves "desktop advertisement specialist", ranted on the phone, they finally give me a link to download an uninstaller, which does not work at all... I was thinking about editing my registry manually--but was afraid that might screw up my computer big time.....
Be careful of websites like look2me.com, fastwebsearch.com, etc etc. I still don't know how they found their way into my computer... These spyware will monitor your online activities and send info to certain servers on the net. who knows, maybe your credit card number as well...
Anyone knows how to get rid of these devils?
Posted by Jay Nichols (Member # 2842) on :
Peter,
two products I've had excellent results with are Ad-Aware by Lavasoft and Spybot Search and Destroy. Both are free and will take care of your problems with scumware. Good luck!
Posted by Joe Rees (Member # 211) on :
I have a friend who sets up computers and installs/optimizes software and such by the hour. He says his main income these days is from de-glitching spyware ridden machines. It's rampant and getting worse. Particularly if you have a network of machines, as it travels between them like a cockroach running from pointy toed shoe.
A few tips he has mentioned in the past are disabling your antivirus and reboot in safe mode before running adaware and spybot (both). He has a third product he runs too which I can't remember, and all three catch different things.
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Peter...You haven't been to any of those "naughty" sites lately have you??? Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
One of the best feature of Windows XP is the restore feature. If you have it enabled, you can restore you computer back to a state before your problems began.
I recently had my IE homepage hijacked by Yahoo's browswer and could not change it under the tools option.
But restoring back to the day before had my computer back in original working order in the few minutes it took to restore and reboot. Sure does save you a lot of grief and frustration.
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
To restore your old home page: 1. Go to 'Start'. then 2. Go to 'Control Panel', then 3. Go to 'Internet Options'. then 4. Under 'Home Page', change it to whatever you want as a Home Page.
Makes you want to find out where these people are and show up there and "go postal"!!!!!
Ad-Aware and Spybot are great for cleaning them out! Download them at:
The one that hijacked my browser is the most vicious one: it disabled the "option" under internet tools, sometimes it even gray out some of the links in "favorites"... :-(
Well, these days I am working my tail off to finish my orders, and all the sites I visited are sign/graphics related, occasionally I read news online from major news outlets. Plus some online shopping, paying bills etc.
Most likely what happend I guess was that I might have clicked one of those "banner ads" on some news sites accidentally...
I don't understand why such activities are not outlawed yet... It is much worse than spam. Imagine how you will react if you are forced to view only one channel on your cable... It is more than annoying...
Anyway, got goole for some tips and hope this nightmare will end soon....
Posted by Ron Costa (Member # 3366) on :
I use Ad aware and Spybot but lately have had the best luck with spyhunter. its a $29 download
Posted by Tasmus (Member # 445) on :
Forget it. Your best bet is to copy your important files (sign files and documents, NOT programs)Format the HD and start all over. It is pretty painless with XP these days. You will be glad you did, your machine will run smoother and faster.
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
I found a (free) little program on the web a few months ago called "Hijack this!". It's a small downloadable .exe file that stops another program from taking over your default homepage. Can't remember where I found it- somewhere deep in the 3rd or 4th page of a yahoo search. There's another called "Browser Hijack Blaster"- just do a search if you're not comfortable editing your computer's registry, or if the control panel changes don't work.. Good luck!
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
Barry,
quote: Format the HD and start all over.
Just did that last week. This thing's mean and lean again, but there are a few things to consider before doing it...
Coookies... Websites you are registered with...Letterville, Ebay, your bank's online services, sites you pay bills online with, etc... If you are used to logging in automatically by having Windows remember you passwords, those cookies will be deleted. If you've forgotten the password, it saves having to re-register or email for a password reminder.
Downloads... Stuff like Winzip, Kazaa, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, etc... These are installation programs. Some are pretty large and you can save a lot of time not having to download again by backing them up onto a CD.
Windows Updates... Warning!!!!!!! If you have a computer running Windows XP, the longer you've had it, the more critical updates you will have to get. The computer will install the ORIGINAL version you bought, and the updates will all have to be redone. I went directly to the Microsoft site and manually did the "Critical Updates". 49 of them to install!!! My system is 2 years old and the total time to get back up to date was a little over 6 hours with a high speed connection. With dial up, it can take DAYS!!!
Rapid
Posted by Joe Rees (Member # 211) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ron Costa: I use Ad aware and Spybot but lately have had the best luck with spyhunter. its a $29 download
Yeah, Spyhunter - THAT's the one my pal uses - according to him it does the deepest, most thorough routing of the troublemakers.
Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :
This morning I got a spam in my email sent to me NOT by my email address but by my PASSWORD!! which NOBODY has seen - it showed up in my mail, though. This stuff is getting scary. Posted by Jean-Claude Theriault (Member # 966) on :
I decided to set my anti-spyware program to do a 'search and destroy' mission after reading this post. 68 hits in less than 5 minutes. This is quite scary when you think about what information some people can get access to through computer invasions.
What pi**ed me off more than anything this week was getting a pop up ad advertising 'anti-ad' software! Creative marketing I guess.
Jean-Claude
Posted by Starr Horne (Member # 4633) on :
One way to avoid alot of these things is to use the Mozilla web browser insted of IE. It's free (really free, no ads) & is alot nicer than IE anyway.
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