Reciently I was looking at an "adult" site. Now I have this search
engine forced on me as my home page..Deleated it, Put Google back in
restarted my computer and there it is again..deleated all cookies and
temp files....didnt help..also some very explicit web sites appear in
my favorites list and reappear even when deleated...What can I do to
eliminate this problem?

---

Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 29 Sep 2004 07:00 PDT

Hi  lasybone1955,

To begin resolving your problem, you must "do the basics" first.
Please follow the fine tutorial at MajorGeeks's website.

How to: Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

At the very least, you must run the following programs, in the order given.

1) Run HouseCall, a very thorough online virus scan:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Download and "check for updates" before scanning:

2) CWShredder:
http://www.spychecker.com/program/coolwebshredder.htmls

3) Adaware
http://lavasoft.element5.com/default.shtml.en

4) SpyBot
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

There is another good tutorial at KRC.

KRC Anti-Spyware Tutorial
http://www.greyknight17.com/spyware.htm

Please let me know if that resolves your problem so I can either post
this as an answer or continue to try and find a solution for you.

Thank you,
hummer

---

Clarification of Question by lasybone1955-ga on 01 Oct 2004 05:46 PDT

The problem has been fixed..I installed an anti virus Program and an 
anti spyware program....They detected several problems and fixed
them...Now my computer is running faster than it has in a long
while....Thanks for the help!
Kenny

Hi  Kenny,

Thank you for the good news and for giving me the opportunity to
answer your question. Here it is again, to make it official.

To begin resolving your problem, you must "do the basics" first.
Please follow the fine tutorial at MajorGeeks's website.

How to: Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

At the very least, you must run the following programs, in the order given.

1) Run HouseCall, a very thorough online virus scan:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Download and "check for updates" before scanning:

2) CWShredder:
http://www.spychecker.com/program/coolwebshredder.htmls

3) Adaware
http://lavasoft.element5.com/default.shtml.en

4) SpyBot
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

There is another good tutorial at KRC.

KRC Anti-Spyware Tutorial
http://www.greyknight17.com/spyware.htm


Thanks again - wishing you happy and trouble-free computing,
hummer

Hi Lasy,

I had hoped that our resident experts would have had an answer by now.
Your question prompted me to look for another solution as I have a
similar problem with the home page. Also, e-mails from overseas
offering me insurance, cheap home loans, pharmaceuticals etc. appear.
I don't get it. Why do they bother, when what they have to sell, is
unsaleable in another country.

Anyhow, my homepage continues to be set at "any-find.com". I had done
exactly as you have done, to no avail. Setting "Google" as my home
page only sticks for one time, then it reverts as you described.

Resetting the comp to an earlier date makes no difference.

At great expense :) I downloaded "Spyware Stormer". If your comp is
running slow, you might like to have a look at this one. It supposedly
detected 75 infected files and 2 "key registers". Immediately after
deleting these files and registers, I ran it again. It then detected 2
more files. I had no other windows open. Perhaps it detected itself
???? I must admit my comp is a little faster than it was. Maybe just
spurious.

I'm as sick of this as you are. I'm considering wiping the lot and
starting from scratch. I wonder too if the anti-spam industry is self
generated by the spammers.

What are your comments on the following:

McAfee Security
McAfee Spamkiller (can't work out how to use it)
CW Shredder
Hijack This

Thanks for reading,

Phil

Hi,

Try using LavaSoft AdAware Personal Edition... download it FREE from
http://www.download.com .... update the definitons... scan your
system... if required, restart and re-scan and then try to change your
homepage.. I hope it will DEFINITELY work...

Thanks and Regards

Fahad

Lately, if you found your default home page to be automatically being
set to C:/Searchpage.htm, then you are infected with the searchpage
Virus. Just dont panic! This wont allow you to change the default home
page and even if the file is deleted from hard disk, it is regenerated
again. After getting infected by this virus, most of them believe
their antivirus will take care of it, but it isn\'t so atleast till
now. Many forums have posted suggestions on removing, but most of them
are futile. So, you have to manually remove the files and the
instructions for removing are given below.
 
step 1 : Download Hijackthis from here:
http://209.133.47.200/~merijn/files/HijackThis.exe

step 2 : Do not delete any entries from your registry. Deleting
entries will make no difference with your problem, In fact, you can
corrupt the registry instead. Go to My Computer > Control Panel
> Internet Options > Programs(tab) and Reset Web Settings.

step 3 : Go to C:/windows/system 32 and delete Mshelper.dll.

step 4 : Also rename mtwirl.dll to MtwirL.bogus.

step 5 : Search for C:\\searchpage file and delete it . 

step 6 : restart computer, run Hijack this and let it fix all
occurences of C:\\searchpage.

step 7 : Search for C:\\searchpage file and if it exists, delete it.

step 8 : Go to C:/windows/system32 and delete mtwirl.bogus

step 9: Use any  spyware removal tool if possible to remove any traces
of the left out ones. Use ad-aware or webroot spy sweeper.

If you are using Windows XP, then probably at step 3, you wont be able
to delete the file directly. You will have to restart your PC in safe
mode with command prompt and then go to the windows/system32 directory
and delete the file Mshelper.dll and restart your PC.

At last, you are free from this irritating virus that troubled you a lot.
Suggestion: Always visit sites that are well trusted(certified) and do
not read spams.:-). Use a popup blocker.

Hey Lasy,

Please share your good fortune.

Which programs did you download?

Phil