CoolHomePage.com

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Paul

Somehow CoolHomePage.com has inserted itself on my PC so
that it comes-up as my default home page on Internet
Explorer. I never accessed their home page before this
happened. I can only guess that they had a pop-up on a
web page that I did access and somehow, via their pop-up,
inserted their address onto my PC.

I changed my default home page back to what I had it as
and I used Explorer to do a search for all references to
coolhomepage on my PC. It came-up with several references
so I deleted them all. I used Registry Editor to search
my registry but it didn't indicate any references to
CoolHomePage were in my registry.

After all that, I still have CoolHomePage.com substituting
their address onto my default home page in Internet
Explorer.

This is really ticking me off and I want to alert
everybody to how unethical the people at CoolHomePage must
be to do this. But, also, I am hoping that somebody has
an idea that will help me remove whatever change they made
to my PC.

Thanks for your help!!

Paul
 
-----Original Message-----
Somehow CoolHomePage.com has inserted itself on my PC so
that it comes-up as my default home page on Internet
Explorer. I never accessed their home page before this
happened. I can only guess that they had a pop-up on a
web page that I did access and somehow, via their pop- up,
inserted their address onto my PC.

I changed my default home page back to what I had it as
and I used Explorer to do a search for all references to
coolhomepage on my PC. It came-up with several references
so I deleted them all. I used Registry Editor to search
my registry but it didn't indicate any references to
CoolHomePage were in my registry.

After all that, I still have CoolHomePage.com substituting
their address onto my default home page in Internet
Explorer.

This is really ticking me off and I want to alert
everybody to how unethical the people at CoolHomePage must
be to do this. But, also, I am hoping that somebody has
an idea that will help me remove whatever change they made
to my PC.

Thanks for your help!!

Paul
Click to expand...

I am not that computer savy but I think I might provide
some help. I think you got some "spyware" on your
computer. To change what your home page is go to tools,
internet options and change it there. These programs get
on your computer by means I am not sure of but I think
they are a pain in the butt as well. I think you are
right. That is unethical.
 
Paul,
I have a similar problem. Unfortunately, I am also
searching for an answer. If you
find one, would you please forward it to me at
(e-mail address removed) ?
Thanks.
Rick
 
Paul said:
Somehow CoolHomePage.com has inserted itself on my PC so
that it comes-up as my default home page on Internet
Explorer. I never accessed their home page before this
happened. I can only guess that they had a pop-up on a
web page that I did access and somehow, via their pop-up,
inserted their address onto my PC.
Click to expand...
[Cut]

-----

Paul,

Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

How to remove Coolwebsearch and affiliates:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch

Download CWSshredder:
http://www.spychecker.com/program/cwshredder.html

Cheers,
 
Try downloading a spyware software program. The same thing
happened to me, the only difference being my home page
changed to yahoo. That is a clear sign of spyware having
been downloaded to your computer. I got my 'spyhunter' from
www.enigmasoftwaregroup.com. It costs $30 to download the
full program. (you can download the scanner for free but to
get it to remove the parasites or spyware you have to pay.)
So far I've no regrets. Good luck.
 
Hi Chris:

Thanks for your response!

I have used tools/internet options to change my home-page
but coolhomepage.com still inserts itself over my default
home page.

Paul
 
Hi Karyn:

Thanks for your response!

I will try enigmasoftwaregroup to see if it does the trick.

Thanks for your help!

Paul
 
Hi Vincenzo:

Thanks for your response!

I will go to the sites you've listed and check them out.
Boy, after so many years of going-out to the internet
(even back in the days on Delphi when you had to use Unix
commands), this is the first time I have ever had an
intrusion on my PC; or, that I know of, anyway.

Thanks for your help!

Paul
 
Hi Paul - This is probably a CoolWebSearch variant. Do the following:

You can read about it here: How to remove Coolwebsearch and affiliates:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch

Download and run:
http://216.180.252.218/~spywareinfo.com/downloads/tools/cwshredder.zip to
remove the parasite. This program is updated frequently, so always
re-download it before using.

Then download and run:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/iegentabs.reg to restore your
tabs and remove any restrictions that the parasite has put in place.

However, this also indicates that you may have acquired some other malware
along the way. If you go to this page at Jim Eshelman's site, here:
http://aumha.org/a/noads.htm and wait a little bit (be patient), an analysis
of a number of possible parasites on your machine will be made to help you
identify and remove them. NOTE: You will need to disable Ad Blocking in Zone
Alarm 3.x, if present or any other Ad Blocking software which interferes
with Java Scripting for this scan to work. You should get a message between
the two lines of **** giving the results of the scan.

Get Ad-Aware 6.0, Build 181 or later, here:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/. Update and run this regularly
to get rid of most "spyware/hijackware" on your machine. If it has to fix
things, be sure to re-boot and rerun AdAware again and repeat this cycle
until you get a clean scan. The reason is that it may have to remove
things which are currently "in use" before it can then clean up others.

Another excellent program for this purpose is SpyBot Search and Destroy
available here: http://security.kolla.de/ SpyBot Support Forum here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi. I recommend
using both normally. After fixing things with SpyBot S&D, be sure to
re-boot and rerun SpyBot again and repeat this cycle until you get a clean
"no red" scan. The reason is that SpyBot sometimes has to remove things
which are currently "in use" before it can then clean up others.



Note that sometimes you need to make a judgement call about what these
programs report as spyware. See here, for example:
http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm

Once you get this cleaned up, you might want to consider installing the
SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard here to help prevent this kind of thing from
happening in the future:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/spywareblaster.html (Prevents malware Active
X installs) (BTW, SpyWare Blaster is not memory resident ... no CPU or
memory load - but keep it updated) The latest version as of this writing
will prevent installation or prevent the malware from running if it is
already installed, and it provides information and fixit-links for a variety
of parasites.

http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html (Monitors for attempts to
install malware) Both Very Highly Recommended



--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



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