alexa toolbar, adware?
Commando Line07-19-04, 07:19 PMsomethingHi,
I have been having a problem with unwanted sites popping up whenever I
am running IEXPLORE or EXPLORER. I have run hijackthis.exe, spybot,
adaware, spyhunter, and norton, and spyblaster. I have eliminated many
things from my registry that looks suspicious and I have uninstalled
and reinstalled IE.
The only program that finds "Alexa Toolbar" is spyblaster, and it
quarantines and deletes it each time, but it always reappears.
Does anyone have any information on Alexa toolbar; or know how to rid
oneself of it entirely? Thanks
- CL
Shane07-19-04, 07:19 PMsomething> Does anyone have any information on Alexa toolbar; or know how to rid
> oneself of it entirely? Thanks
If you hit the *Related Sites* button, you'll be - iirc - redirected via
Alexa and that is a privacy concern. But if you never do use *Related Sites*
the Alexa redirect never happens. The Alexa reg entry is installed along
with Internet Explorer - and re-installed if the IE Repair tool is used.
Spybot S&D and Ad-aware will always find this in my experience.
But you refer to *Alexa Toolbar*. Presumably you do not have the Alexa
Toolbar, as it should be obvious if you have. There'll be a toolbar.
By Spyblaster, do you mean Spywareblaster? If so, I wasn't aware that it did
that. Possibly because I've always removed the Alexa key before it's
installed.
Shane
Commando Line07-21-04, 10:15 PMsomething"Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote
>
>
> But you refer to *Alexa Toolbar*. Presumably you do not have the Alexa
> Toolbar, as it should be obvious if you have. There'll be a toolbar.
That's just it. I appear to have no 'Alexa Toolbar' at all. It's not
in the 'Add or Remove Programs' window, and it doesn't appear within
Taskmanager, probably because it's part of IEXPLORE, which is where I
am getting the problem -- porn and gambling sites whenever IEXPLORE is
running. But Webroot Spy Sweeper always finds 'Alexa Toolbar'. And
Deletes it. And finds it. And so on. Could there be a virus
masquerading as 'Alexa Toolbar'?
> By Spyblaster, do you mean Spywareblaster? If so, I wasn't aware that it did
> that. Possibly because I've always removed the Alexa key before it's
> installed.
I'm sorry, I was referring to Webroot Spy Sweeper. To confuse matters
more, I also have tried Spy Doctor and Spy Killer, and they haven't
found anything.
Thanks for your interest,
CL
Bill07-22-04, 02:14 AMsomethingOn 21 Jul 2004 20:03:45 -0700, commandoLine@yahoo.com (Commando Line)
wrote:
>That's just it. I appear to have no 'Alexa Toolbar' at all. It's not
>in the 'Add or Remove Programs' window, and it doesn't appear within
>Taskmanager, probably because it's part of IEXPLORE, which is where I
>am getting the problem -- porn and gambling sites whenever IEXPLORE is
>running. But Webroot Spy Sweeper always finds 'Alexa Toolbar'. And
>Deletes it. And finds it. And so on. Could there be a virus
>masquerading as 'Alexa Toolbar'?
Disable restore, then scan for it.
Shane07-22-04, 07:18 PMsomething"Bill" <blevins@mchsi.com> wrote in message
news:tgfuf05lnlpeepstaecl8cu5ljsp51oc18@4ax.com...
> On 21 Jul 2004 20:03:45 -0700, commandoLine@yahoo.com (Commando Line)
> wrote:
>
>
>
> Disable restore, then scan for it.
And then if there's a problem that only SR would fix, he's screwed for no
good reason.
Shane
Bill07-22-04, 07:18 PMsomethingOn Thu, 22 Jul 2004 08:42:48 +0100, "Shane"
<arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote:
>And then if there's a problem that only SR would fix, he's screwed for no
>good reason.
Come back when you know what the hell you're talking about.
Shane07-22-04, 07:18 PMsomething"Bill" <blevins@mchsi.com> wrote in message
news:51uuf0990m52ecn7qb9qi2pvgpgpt9b4h7@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 08:42:48 +0100, "Shane"
> <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Come back when you know what the hell you're talking about.
You clearly don't.
Shane
Shane07-22-04, 07:18 PMsomething"Commando Line" <commandoLine@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:972fc92b.0407211903.5c74f73a@posting.google.c om...
> "Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote
>
> That's just it. I appear to have no 'Alexa Toolbar' at all. It's not
> in the 'Add or Remove Programs' window, and it doesn't appear within
> Taskmanager, probably because it's part of IEXPLORE, which is where I
> am getting the problem -- porn and gambling sites whenever IEXPLORE is
> running. But Webroot Spy Sweeper always finds 'Alexa Toolbar'. And
> Deletes it. And finds it. And so on. Could there be a virus
> masquerading as 'Alexa Toolbar'?
>
Right. Well, I really don't believe, if Ad-aware and Spybot S&D fail to
alert on Alexa - Toolbar or otherwise - that you have Alexa on your system.
More likely Spy Sweeper is false alerting - or finding something and calling
it something else (what ever that behaviour is called).
If you're getting porn/gambling popups/sites opening or your home page being
redirected, then you definately have some form of malware. You say *sites*.
It would be useful to know what those sites are. This often helps identify,
for instance, a variant of CoolWebSearch.
By the way, disabling System Restore has no value whatsoever. If you have a
malware that's been cleaned but subsequent scans report the virus as still
being in "_Restore" or "System Volume Information", it is safe there. The
virus cannot run until restored and the system *will not* restore it
automatically. There are strategies available for dealing with malware in
the restore archive, but the advice to simply disable it is the most
ignorant and unnecessary one.
PS. I was going to point you, for illustration purposes, to the Alexa
Toolbar download at Microsoft.com - but it no-longer appears to be available
(after several years). One of the Google hits, incidently, for "alexa
toolbar microsoft.com" is for a Pest Patrol page. I tried Pest Patrol maybe
a couple of years ago, but it false alerts something chronic. I tried it
again at the weekend trying to duplicate a problem a friend is having. PP
reported Windows 98se's Sysedit.exe as a keylogger trojan. It also reported
various components of the IE5 web accessories as adware.
My advice - and that of most others - is stick with the freeware tools:
Ad-aware, Spybot S&D, Spywareblaster.
Shane
Shane07-22-04, 07:18 PMsomethingIn the absence of further information, I suggest getting BHODemon:
http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm
This is a new version - just DLing it myself - so I don't know how it sets
up. The previous version simply unzipped. D-click the excutable, it shows
you what Browser Helper Objects are installed. Typically one has Google
Toolbar, Adobe Acrobat Reader, maybe one's download manager. An unrecognised
one might be the culprit. If uncertain, uncheck all.
Shane
Commando Line07-28-04, 05:42 PMsomething> > >commandoLine@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>"Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote:
> And then if there's a problem that only SR would fix, he's screwed for no
> good reason.
What's an SR? Thanks,
-R
Commando Line07-28-04, 05:42 PMsomething> > > "Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote
>
> "Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote
> Right. Well, I really don't believe, if Ad-aware and Spybot S&D fail to
> alert on Alexa - Toolbar or otherwise - that you have Alexa on your system.
> More likely Spy Sweeper is false alerting - or finding something and calling
> it something else (what ever that behaviour is called).
>
> If you're getting porn/gambling popups/sites opening or your home page being
> redirected, then you definately have some form of malware. You say *sites*.
> It would be useful to know what those sites are. This often helps identify,
> for instance, a variant of CoolWebSearch.
Yeah, I found CoolWebSearch when this pattern of behavior first
developed on my machine. I deleted registry entries with that name in
it, as well as all other BHO's
Commando Line07-28-04, 05:42 PMsomething"Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<2m9lanFkcgldU1@uni-berlin.de>
> In the absence of further information, I suggest getting BHODemon:
> http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm
>
> This is a new version - just DLing it myself - so I don't know how it sets
> up. The previous version simply unzipped. D-click the excutable, it shows
> you what Browser Helper Objects are installed. Typically one has Google
> Toolbar, Adobe Acrobat Reader, maybe one's download manager. An unrecognised
> one might be the culprit. If uncertain, uncheck all.
I had already eliminated all BHOs with hijackthis.exe, including the
ones you mention, but I downloaded this app and ran it anyway. Didnt
find anything malevolent except for cookies. Thanks anyway,
CL
Shane07-28-04, 05:42 PMsomething"Commando Line" <commandoLine@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:972fc92b.0407232319.63d0c88f@posting.google.c om...
>
> What's an SR? Thanks,
System Restore.
System Restore archives certain types of file - including viruses and other
malware. So, if you ran System Restore to restore to a date *after
infection* but *before cleaning*, you'd be re-infecting yourself. But, SR
does *not* restore automatically - you have to manually run the program,
select *Restore my computer to an earlier date*, select that date, close a
warning screen and finally click *Finish*. So unless you *are* doing that,
SR is not an issue. As new restore points are <automatically> made, the
earliest are flushed. With a sensible SR setting (200-500 MB) the infected
restore points will be gone within days, without your having to do anything.
When a virus is archived in SR, an AV scan will typically alert on it (but
be unable to clean it). That virus absolutely cannot run from within the SR
archive, so is not a cause for concern unless you manually - deliberately or
unwittingly - restore to that previously infected state. And even then it
makes an *undo* restore point so you can reverse it.
The restore point made prior to infection, if one exists, is valuable and
the one made since cleaning is also potentially valuable. If you disable
System Restore, the entire archive is flushed, you lose the ability to
restore the system to before or after infection. Not much consolation if you
have problems resulting *from* the infection or the cleaning (now what are
the odds, eh?).
Anyway, if your problem is on-going - and you're not manually running SR to
restore to a previous state - then your issue has nothing whatsoever to do
with System Restore.
Shane
Shane07-28-04, 05:42 PMsomething"Commando Line" <commandoLine@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:972fc92b.0407232355.4231be6@posting.google.co m...
> "Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:<2m9lanFkcgldU1@uni-berlin.de>
>
> I had already eliminated all BHOs with hijackthis.exe, including the
> ones you mention, but I downloaded this app and ran it anyway. Didnt
> find anything malevolent except for cookies. Thanks anyway,
>
No problem. Have you run cwshredder?
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
BugOff might be worth getting too.
Shane
Commando Line07-30-04, 02:24 AMsomething> >> This is a new version - just DLing it myself - so I don't know how it
>
> No problem. Have you run cwshredder?
> http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
> BugOff might be worth getting too.
>
Tried them, no dice. One thing about my symptoms -- they're IE only.
Is there anyway to simply replace my version of IE.
I tried going to Add/Remove Windows component, "removing" it, and
unchecked the button next to IE, but the readme mentioned that i was
simply removing access to the desktop/start menu icons. So, is there
some way to really remove, and then replace IE?
I realize reinstalling a new copy of IE may not solve my problem,
since even though the problem [porn gambling viagra etc, windows
loading and displaying when I run IE] is symptomatically IE-based, it
may be caused by something hiding elsewhere in the registry or
somewhere on the hard drive.
Thanks for reading!
Commando Line07-30-04, 02:24 AMsomething> >> This is a new version - just DLing it myself - so I don't know how it
>
> No problem. Have you run cwshredder?
> http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
> BugOff might be worth getting too.
>
Tried them, no dice. One thing about my symptoms -- they're IE only.
Is there anyway to simply replace my version of IE.
I tried going to Add/Remove Windows component, "removing" it, and
unchecked the button next to IE, but the readme mentioned that i was
simply removing access to the desktop/start menu icons. So, is there
some way to really remove, and then replace IE?
I realize reinstalling a new copy of IE may not solve my problem,
since even though the problem [porn gambling viagra etc, windows
loading and displaying when I run IE] is symptomatically IE-based, it
may be caused by something hiding elsewhere in the registry or
somewhere on the hard drive.
Thanks for reading!
Shane07-31-04, 02:13 AMsomething"Commando Line" <commandoLine@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:972fc92b.0407292158.7409388a@posting.google.c om...
shows[vbcol=seagreen]
Google[vbcol=seagreen]
>
>
> Tried them, no dice. One thing about my symptoms -- they're IE only.
> Is there anyway to simply replace my version of IE.
That is unlikely to be a solution.
When you ran HijackThis, did you post the log eg to the Spywareinfo forum?
What have you got in *Downloaded Program Files*? R-clicked everything in
there and viewed properties to where it's from?
>
> I tried going to Add/Remove Windows component, "removing" it, and
> unchecked the button next to IE, but the readme mentioned that i was
> simply removing access to the desktop/start menu icons. So, is there
> some way to really remove, and then replace IE?
There are ways to force a re-install of IE in XP. I really don't expect
it'll help, but:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q318378
Whether or not you use that, look here too:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_ie.htm
>
> I realize reinstalling a new copy of IE may not solve my problem,
> since even though the problem [porn gambling viagra etc, windows
> loading and displaying when I run IE] is symptomatically IE-based, it
> may be caused by something hiding elsewhere in the registry or
> somewhere on the hard drive.
Almost certainly.
>
> Thanks for reading!
No prob. Perhaps you'd care to post your HijackThis log here.
Shane
I have been having a problem with unwanted sites popping up whenever I
am running IEXPLORE or EXPLORER. I have run hijackthis.exe, spybot,
adaware, spyhunter, and norton, and spyblaster. I have eliminated many
things from my registry that looks suspicious and I have uninstalled
and reinstalled IE.
The only program that finds "Alexa Toolbar" is spyblaster, and it
quarantines and deletes it each time, but it always reappears.
Does anyone have any information on Alexa toolbar; or know how to rid
oneself of it entirely? Thanks
- CL
Shane07-19-04, 07:19 PMsomething> Does anyone have any information on Alexa toolbar; or know how to rid
> oneself of it entirely? Thanks
If you hit the *Related Sites* button, you'll be - iirc - redirected via
Alexa and that is a privacy concern. But if you never do use *Related Sites*
the Alexa redirect never happens. The Alexa reg entry is installed along
with Internet Explorer - and re-installed if the IE Repair tool is used.
Spybot S&D and Ad-aware will always find this in my experience.
But you refer to *Alexa Toolbar*. Presumably you do not have the Alexa
Toolbar, as it should be obvious if you have. There'll be a toolbar.
By Spyblaster, do you mean Spywareblaster? If so, I wasn't aware that it did
that. Possibly because I've always removed the Alexa key before it's
installed.
Shane
Commando Line07-21-04, 10:15 PMsomething"Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote
>
>
> But you refer to *Alexa Toolbar*. Presumably you do not have the Alexa
> Toolbar, as it should be obvious if you have. There'll be a toolbar.
That's just it. I appear to have no 'Alexa Toolbar' at all. It's not
in the 'Add or Remove Programs' window, and it doesn't appear within
Taskmanager, probably because it's part of IEXPLORE, which is where I
am getting the problem -- porn and gambling sites whenever IEXPLORE is
running. But Webroot Spy Sweeper always finds 'Alexa Toolbar'. And
Deletes it. And finds it. And so on. Could there be a virus
masquerading as 'Alexa Toolbar'?
> By Spyblaster, do you mean Spywareblaster? If so, I wasn't aware that it did
> that. Possibly because I've always removed the Alexa key before it's
> installed.
I'm sorry, I was referring to Webroot Spy Sweeper. To confuse matters
more, I also have tried Spy Doctor and Spy Killer, and they haven't
found anything.
Thanks for your interest,
CL
Bill07-22-04, 02:14 AMsomethingOn 21 Jul 2004 20:03:45 -0700, commandoLine@yahoo.com (Commando Line)
wrote:
>That's just it. I appear to have no 'Alexa Toolbar' at all. It's not
>in the 'Add or Remove Programs' window, and it doesn't appear within
>Taskmanager, probably because it's part of IEXPLORE, which is where I
>am getting the problem -- porn and gambling sites whenever IEXPLORE is
>running. But Webroot Spy Sweeper always finds 'Alexa Toolbar'. And
>Deletes it. And finds it. And so on. Could there be a virus
>masquerading as 'Alexa Toolbar'?
Disable restore, then scan for it.
Shane07-22-04, 07:18 PMsomething"Bill" <blevins@mchsi.com> wrote in message
news:tgfuf05lnlpeepstaecl8cu5ljsp51oc18@4ax.com...
> On 21 Jul 2004 20:03:45 -0700, commandoLine@yahoo.com (Commando Line)
> wrote:
>
>
>
> Disable restore, then scan for it.
And then if there's a problem that only SR would fix, he's screwed for no
good reason.
Shane
Bill07-22-04, 07:18 PMsomethingOn Thu, 22 Jul 2004 08:42:48 +0100, "Shane"
<arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote:
>And then if there's a problem that only SR would fix, he's screwed for no
>good reason.
Come back when you know what the hell you're talking about.
Shane07-22-04, 07:18 PMsomething"Bill" <blevins@mchsi.com> wrote in message
news:51uuf0990m52ecn7qb9qi2pvgpgpt9b4h7@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 08:42:48 +0100, "Shane"
> <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Come back when you know what the hell you're talking about.
You clearly don't.
Shane
Shane07-22-04, 07:18 PMsomething"Commando Line" <commandoLine@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:972fc92b.0407211903.5c74f73a@posting.google.c om...
> "Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote
>
> That's just it. I appear to have no 'Alexa Toolbar' at all. It's not
> in the 'Add or Remove Programs' window, and it doesn't appear within
> Taskmanager, probably because it's part of IEXPLORE, which is where I
> am getting the problem -- porn and gambling sites whenever IEXPLORE is
> running. But Webroot Spy Sweeper always finds 'Alexa Toolbar'. And
> Deletes it. And finds it. And so on. Could there be a virus
> masquerading as 'Alexa Toolbar'?
>
Right. Well, I really don't believe, if Ad-aware and Spybot S&D fail to
alert on Alexa - Toolbar or otherwise - that you have Alexa on your system.
More likely Spy Sweeper is false alerting - or finding something and calling
it something else (what ever that behaviour is called).
If you're getting porn/gambling popups/sites opening or your home page being
redirected, then you definately have some form of malware. You say *sites*.
It would be useful to know what those sites are. This often helps identify,
for instance, a variant of CoolWebSearch.
By the way, disabling System Restore has no value whatsoever. If you have a
malware that's been cleaned but subsequent scans report the virus as still
being in "_Restore" or "System Volume Information", it is safe there. The
virus cannot run until restored and the system *will not* restore it
automatically. There are strategies available for dealing with malware in
the restore archive, but the advice to simply disable it is the most
ignorant and unnecessary one.
PS. I was going to point you, for illustration purposes, to the Alexa
Toolbar download at Microsoft.com - but it no-longer appears to be available
(after several years). One of the Google hits, incidently, for "alexa
toolbar microsoft.com" is for a Pest Patrol page. I tried Pest Patrol maybe
a couple of years ago, but it false alerts something chronic. I tried it
again at the weekend trying to duplicate a problem a friend is having. PP
reported Windows 98se's Sysedit.exe as a keylogger trojan. It also reported
various components of the IE5 web accessories as adware.
My advice - and that of most others - is stick with the freeware tools:
Ad-aware, Spybot S&D, Spywareblaster.
Shane
Shane07-22-04, 07:18 PMsomethingIn the absence of further information, I suggest getting BHODemon:
http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm
This is a new version - just DLing it myself - so I don't know how it sets
up. The previous version simply unzipped. D-click the excutable, it shows
you what Browser Helper Objects are installed. Typically one has Google
Toolbar, Adobe Acrobat Reader, maybe one's download manager. An unrecognised
one might be the culprit. If uncertain, uncheck all.
Shane
Commando Line07-28-04, 05:42 PMsomething> > >commandoLine@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>"Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote:
> And then if there's a problem that only SR would fix, he's screwed for no
> good reason.
What's an SR? Thanks,
-R
Commando Line07-28-04, 05:42 PMsomething> > > "Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote
>
> "Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote
> Right. Well, I really don't believe, if Ad-aware and Spybot S&D fail to
> alert on Alexa - Toolbar or otherwise - that you have Alexa on your system.
> More likely Spy Sweeper is false alerting - or finding something and calling
> it something else (what ever that behaviour is called).
>
> If you're getting porn/gambling popups/sites opening or your home page being
> redirected, then you definately have some form of malware. You say *sites*.
> It would be useful to know what those sites are. This often helps identify,
> for instance, a variant of CoolWebSearch.
Yeah, I found CoolWebSearch when this pattern of behavior first
developed on my machine. I deleted registry entries with that name in
it, as well as all other BHO's
Commando Line07-28-04, 05:42 PMsomething"Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<2m9lanFkcgldU1@uni-berlin.de>
> In the absence of further information, I suggest getting BHODemon:
> http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm
>
> This is a new version - just DLing it myself - so I don't know how it sets
> up. The previous version simply unzipped. D-click the excutable, it shows
> you what Browser Helper Objects are installed. Typically one has Google
> Toolbar, Adobe Acrobat Reader, maybe one's download manager. An unrecognised
> one might be the culprit. If uncertain, uncheck all.
I had already eliminated all BHOs with hijackthis.exe, including the
ones you mention, but I downloaded this app and ran it anyway. Didnt
find anything malevolent except for cookies. Thanks anyway,
CL
Shane07-28-04, 05:42 PMsomething"Commando Line" <commandoLine@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:972fc92b.0407232319.63d0c88f@posting.google.c om...
>
> What's an SR? Thanks,
System Restore.
System Restore archives certain types of file - including viruses and other
malware. So, if you ran System Restore to restore to a date *after
infection* but *before cleaning*, you'd be re-infecting yourself. But, SR
does *not* restore automatically - you have to manually run the program,
select *Restore my computer to an earlier date*, select that date, close a
warning screen and finally click *Finish*. So unless you *are* doing that,
SR is not an issue. As new restore points are <automatically> made, the
earliest are flushed. With a sensible SR setting (200-500 MB) the infected
restore points will be gone within days, without your having to do anything.
When a virus is archived in SR, an AV scan will typically alert on it (but
be unable to clean it). That virus absolutely cannot run from within the SR
archive, so is not a cause for concern unless you manually - deliberately or
unwittingly - restore to that previously infected state. And even then it
makes an *undo* restore point so you can reverse it.
The restore point made prior to infection, if one exists, is valuable and
the one made since cleaning is also potentially valuable. If you disable
System Restore, the entire archive is flushed, you lose the ability to
restore the system to before or after infection. Not much consolation if you
have problems resulting *from* the infection or the cleaning (now what are
the odds, eh?).
Anyway, if your problem is on-going - and you're not manually running SR to
restore to a previous state - then your issue has nothing whatsoever to do
with System Restore.
Shane
Shane07-28-04, 05:42 PMsomething"Commando Line" <commandoLine@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:972fc92b.0407232355.4231be6@posting.google.co m...
> "Shane" <arthursixpence@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:<2m9lanFkcgldU1@uni-berlin.de>
>
> I had already eliminated all BHOs with hijackthis.exe, including the
> ones you mention, but I downloaded this app and ran it anyway. Didnt
> find anything malevolent except for cookies. Thanks anyway,
>
No problem. Have you run cwshredder?
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
BugOff might be worth getting too.
Shane
Commando Line07-30-04, 02:24 AMsomething> >> This is a new version - just DLing it myself - so I don't know how it
>
> No problem. Have you run cwshredder?
> http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
> BugOff might be worth getting too.
>
Tried them, no dice. One thing about my symptoms -- they're IE only.
Is there anyway to simply replace my version of IE.
I tried going to Add/Remove Windows component, "removing" it, and
unchecked the button next to IE, but the readme mentioned that i was
simply removing access to the desktop/start menu icons. So, is there
some way to really remove, and then replace IE?
I realize reinstalling a new copy of IE may not solve my problem,
since even though the problem [porn gambling viagra etc, windows
loading and displaying when I run IE] is symptomatically IE-based, it
may be caused by something hiding elsewhere in the registry or
somewhere on the hard drive.
Thanks for reading!
Commando Line07-30-04, 02:24 AMsomething> >> This is a new version - just DLing it myself - so I don't know how it
>
> No problem. Have you run cwshredder?
> http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
> BugOff might be worth getting too.
>
Tried them, no dice. One thing about my symptoms -- they're IE only.
Is there anyway to simply replace my version of IE.
I tried going to Add/Remove Windows component, "removing" it, and
unchecked the button next to IE, but the readme mentioned that i was
simply removing access to the desktop/start menu icons. So, is there
some way to really remove, and then replace IE?
I realize reinstalling a new copy of IE may not solve my problem,
since even though the problem [porn gambling viagra etc, windows
loading and displaying when I run IE] is symptomatically IE-based, it
may be caused by something hiding elsewhere in the registry or
somewhere on the hard drive.
Thanks for reading!
Shane07-31-04, 02:13 AMsomething"Commando Line" <commandoLine@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:972fc92b.0407292158.7409388a@posting.google.c om...
shows[vbcol=seagreen]
Google[vbcol=seagreen]
>
>
> Tried them, no dice. One thing about my symptoms -- they're IE only.
> Is there anyway to simply replace my version of IE.
That is unlikely to be a solution.
When you ran HijackThis, did you post the log eg to the Spywareinfo forum?
What have you got in *Downloaded Program Files*? R-clicked everything in
there and viewed properties to where it's from?
>
> I tried going to Add/Remove Windows component, "removing" it, and
> unchecked the button next to IE, but the readme mentioned that i was
> simply removing access to the desktop/start menu icons. So, is there
> some way to really remove, and then replace IE?
There are ways to force a re-install of IE in XP. I really don't expect
it'll help, but:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q318378
Whether or not you use that, look here too:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_ie.htm
>
> I realize reinstalling a new copy of IE may not solve my problem,
> since even though the problem [porn gambling viagra etc, windows
> loading and displaying when I run IE] is symptomatically IE-based, it
> may be caused by something hiding elsewhere in the registry or
> somewhere on the hard drive.
Almost certainly.
>
> Thanks for reading!
No prob. Perhaps you'd care to post your HijackThis log here.
Shane