Homepage changes on its own

[NathanF]

Hi. Sometimes when I open up windows it brings me to some
search engine or something, rather than my homepage, and
then under control panel and internet options, my
homepage is changed there to. How would I stop this from
happening?

 

[Erlend]

Nathan,
We are certainly not alone.
I have the same problem. I think that there is a faul file
called "NavExt.dll" in your WINTT folder. I haven't be
able to change or delete it though. Do you have an idea.
Strange thing is that the Microsoft Website is not
familiar with this file??
That is why I am convinced that I must delete this. No
luck until now. Try to find this file, open it with
NOTEPATH and search for "Search_space" ( this is somehow
linked to coolsearch) and you will find a reference. If
you have an idea please keep me posted.
Thanks
Erlend

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Nathan - Well, you kinda need to know what the parasite(s) is/are before
you can do much about fixing them except to apply some general tools like
AdAware and/or SpyBot S&D (see below). If they don't fix it then start
here:

Download HijackThis, free, here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip

Unzip it to any convenient folder, start it then press Scan. Click on
SaveLog when it's finished which will create hijackthis.log. Now click the
Config button, then Misc Tools and click on Generate StartupList.log which
will create Startuplist.txt

Then go to one of the following forums:

Spyware and Hijackware Removal Support, here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/index.php?s=8a236cdf61469fbad3bddbe810be0374&act=SF&f=11

or Net-Integration here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-...86d536d57b5f65b6e40c55365e;act=ST;f=27;t=6949

or Tom Coyote here:
http://tomcoyote.org/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=495&s=2c6e92805e310b519b9fa61cc7098fba

Sign in, then copy and paste both files into a message asking for
assistance, Someone will answer with detailed instructions for the removal
of your parasite(s).


For the general hijack case, the best way to start is to 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


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



In