Changed home page. Can't change back

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rick
  • Start date Start date
R

Rick

Help. After visiting some sites of questionable moral
value, I found my home page has been altered. When I go
to Internet Tools,options,and try to reestablish Google as
my home page nothing I do can seem to cahnge it from some
generalized search page. I have run Ad-ware 6, Mcaffee,
Spybot and Stinger. Still can't fix this. Can anyone
help? I promise no more moral transgressions (for the
time being)
 
Rob, thanks for the help. I fear you attribute too much
knowledge to me on this subject. Am I supposed to go to
this site or have you given me code instructions. What do
I do with your information?
 
What I gave you is the section and entry in the Windows Registry where Internet Explorer (IE) keeps this setting.

***THE REGISTRY, HOWEVER, COMPRISES MOST IF NOT ALL OF YOUR HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION SETTINGS. IT IS NOT A PLACE FOR THE UNINITIATED, OR THE "UN-BACKED-UP".**

Perhaps I started a little too deep. Let's back up to the setting in the Internet Options panel, which I had assumed was unavailable to you (possibly "greyed out")

Let's actually check the setting, first. In IE, go to the Tools pull-down menu and select "Internet Options". An optional way of accessing this same panel is by going to the Control Panel (Start\Settings\Control Panel) and opening Internet Options. At the very top of the General tab is a section titled "Home Page". The Address field there is where you set the default web page that IE opens to (the Home Page). Type the address you would like to have in there (eg: http://www.google.com/) and click OK. Close your browser and reopen to verify the change was saved

Should this section be "greyed out" and unavailable to you, you may want to make sure you are logged on as a person with Administrator priveleges. If not, log on as an Administrator and try again. If you are logged on as an Administrator and you still can't get into this setting, then you can use the Registry entry I posted before. I or someone else reading this thread can more properly instruct you on building the entry I gave you into a REG file and how to import it into your Registry if the need arises

Let me know how it goes

Good luck
Robb
 
I work at an ISP that also handles pc repair. Removing spyware and viruses
has become the lions share of our business. I would almost bet that even if
you managed to reset your home page, after your next reboot you would find
it set back to the other search page. Spyware has a nasty habit of doing
that.

My recommendation would be to visit www.spywareinfo.com and read the FAQ,
download HijackThis and create a logfile (instructions in FAQ), then post
your log at spywareinfo. They are experts in repairing this stuff.

Just my humble thoughts,

Tony
 
Make sure to also check the registry with Run and Run
Once...
-----Original Message-----
What I gave you is the section and entry in the Windows
Click to expand...
Registry where Internet Explorer (IE) keeps this
setting.
***THE REGISTRY, HOWEVER, COMPRISES MOST IF NOT ALL OF
Click to expand...
YOUR HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION SETTINGS. IT IS
NOT A PLACE FOR THE UNINITIATED, OR THE "UN-BACKED-UP".***
Perhaps I started a little too deep. Let's back up to
Click to expand...
the setting in the Internet Options panel, which I had
assumed was unavailable to you (possibly "greyed out").
Let's actually check the setting, first. In IE, go to
Click to expand...
the Tools pull-down menu and select "Internet Options".
An optional way of accessing this same panel is by going
to the Control Panel (Start\Settings\Control Panel) and
opening Internet Options. At the very top of the General
tab is a section titled "Home Page". The Address field
there is where you set the default web page that IE opens
to (the Home Page). Type the address you would like to
have in there (eg: http://www.google.com/) and click OK.
Close your browser and reopen to verify the change was
saved.
Should this section be "greyed out" and unavailable to
Click to expand...
you, you may want to make sure you are logged on as a
person with Administrator priveleges. If not, log on as
an Administrator and try again. If you are logged on as
an Administrator and you still can't get into this
setting, then you can use the Registry entry I posted
before. I or someone else reading this thread can more
properly instruct you on building the entry I gave you
into a REG file and how to import it into your Registry
if the need arises.
 
I've seen even the most up to date version of anti-spyware
programs miss some nasty BHO's. Sometimes extra
interventino is required. In Spybot S&D, open it in
Advanced Mode from the Start Menu and then go to Tools and
then BHO's and turn off (toggle) everything without the
green check. Then run the disk clean up and remove all
the Downloaded Program Files (or do so manually - it's
under the WINNT folder). Note that you may have to
download some Active X programs again, but this is no big
deal. Now check your startup. Windows 2K lacks MSConfig,
but that can be downloaded, or you can use Spybot's
Startup section which is also under tools. If needed, you
can always manually edit the registry, which isn't too
hard. Remove any suspicious startup items.
Spywareinfo.com has a link to the Paul Collin's Startup
List (which I can never remeber off hand) to see what you
really need in your startup.

These three things usually work for me when something
slips past the regular spyware scan. 1)BHO's 2)Downloaded
Program Files 3)Startup

After this, then open the Internet Options from the
control panel and reset your homepage. Go ahead and reset
your security to Medium. Then load spybot again and
immunize and lock the startpage.

Goodluck.
 
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