How do I get rid of the stupid,annoying "Recommended First" frame that
has no useful sites but eats up a bunch of desktop.  It is enough to
make me change search engines if I cannot remove it.

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Request for Question Clarification by robertskelton-ga on 26 Mar 2003 15:25 PST

Which browser are you using?

If it is Internet Explorer, right click above the address bar, towards
the right, and you should see some ticked items: Standard Buttons,
Address Bar. Are there any other ticked items?

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Clarification of Question by milcron-ga on 26 Mar 2003 19:34 PST

I'm using IE latest versio on the PC To answer your question, Yes Lock
the toolbars is also checked.  This just started happening and it
happens on more than one PC at more than one physical location.  When
I do a Google search, about 5-10 seconds after the regular search
results come up, a frame opens on the left of the screen and shoves
everything to the right. In this frame are what appear to be paid
links to other sites.  I was/am under the impression that this is a
new Google feature that I have no way of disabling.  Thanks for your
help.

Hi milcron-ga,
   It sounds like web browser search has been 'hijacked' by a
malicious program. The hijacker could have come to your computers
either with some application you installed or it could have been
downloaded and installed by a website you visited.
   Here are some options you can try :

   - Scan your computer with Spybot Search & Destroy. Spybot is a free
program which detects and removes spyware from your computer. As of
15/2/2003, it is able to detect and remove a Hijacker called
'RecommendedFirsts'. This may be what your computer is suffering from.
Download Spybot from:
          - Spybot Search & Destroy by PepiMK Software
            ( http://security.kolla.de/ )

   - If Spybot is unable to help, try the Browser Extension Manager.
This free utility allows you to remove the various Internet Explorer
Browser Helper Objects and Explorer Bars installed on your computer.
Since the recommended results appear in an Explorer Bar on the left
side of your page, deleting any third party Explorer Bar you find
installed should fix your problem. To do this :
      - Download and install Browser Extension Manager from
[http://www.nuetools.co.uk/download.html]
      - Start it up, and goto the 'Tools' tab.
      - Click on the 'View' button in the Explorer Bars section.
      - There are 5 Explorer Bars installed by default on your
computer. They are Search, Media, File Search,History,Explorer. If you
see any other in this list, delete it.

  - You can also try restoring the Internet Explorer Search URLs which
may have been modified by the Hijacker. To restore the search URLs,
download this registry entry file provided by Google
[://www.google.com/default.reg]. Double click on it to add it to
the Windows registry.

  - Finally, try disabling Third Party Browser Helper Objects from
IE's options. You can find the instructions for this in the following
Microsoft KnowledgeBase article:
        - How to Disable Third-Party Tool Bands and Browser Helper
Objects
          ( http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=298931 )

============================================================

Hope this helps.
If you need any clarifications, please do not hesitate to ask. I'll be
glad to help.

Regards,
Theta-ga
:-)

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Google Search Terms Used:
   spybot download
   "internet explorer" disable bho