Constant Homepage Change - about:blank

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Renegade87

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 3, 2003
Messages
237
Here's the rundown on this situ that's driving me nuts. I'm running XP Pro, with Norton SystemWorks 2003, HistoryKill, & AdAware 6.0 installed and updated with all latest updates and definitions etc.

With Comcast cable (and Charter also as I just moved) as my ISP, every time I connect to the Net, HistoryKill warns me of a unwanted and unsolicited Homepage change (About:Blank - some sort of search directory) and asks whether or not I want to accept the change. Of course I click NO!! This happens every 3 - 5 minutes while i'm online. Getting downright annoying and I cannot get rid of it.

Of course I've run AdAware to catch the nasty spyware bug, but no go. Norton AntiVirus and WinDoctor won't "Exorcise" this demon from my rig either.

Short of another reformat/XP install, I don't yet know what to do to kill this freakin thing. :mad:

Anybody got any ideas ?
 
Install and run Hijack This. You've probably got a browser hijack at work. If you're not sure about what to delete from the HT log, post it here and I'll check it out.
 
Cool Web Search strikes again.
I'm looking for a way to get rid of this crap myself. Depending on what version of it you have (it is updated and changed frequently) you may be able to get rid of it with CWShredder. Would post the URL, but newer versions also initiate DDOS attacks on the website, so do a google search for it and try links until you find one that's usuable, (believe I got it from Majorgeeks.com yesterday.) This works great if you picked up an older version.
Unfortunatley, if you have the newest version of this trojan/hijacker/whatever CWShredder wont remove it. From what I read, Shredders author has stopped updating because he can't keep up with the pace of change in the trojan.
I have tried editing my registry and seaching my computer for anything remotley related to this have only succeeded in making it go a way for a short time. It seems to auto update somehow, hides itself all over in .inf files, .dll's and registry entries, and generally is nearly impossible to remove manually. I'm still trying though.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks guys. I downloaded both HijackThis and About Buster and ran as instructed. No go. Opted for reformat/reinstall XP and ran into oher problems (BIOS suddenly doesn't recognize my hard drive - Yikes :eek: ) I guess that's for another thread. Thanks anyways guys.
 
Just for future reference, HijackThis doesnt automatically fix anything. You have to sort through the entries and remove those that look malicious.

I had similar problem with a homepage hijack recently. A combination of Ad-Aware, HijackThis, and some manual registry editing fixxed my problem for me.
 
Scero,

I tried several times removing the offending line found in the HijackThis scan results with no sucess. It is an intuitive program. Very simple to use. Unfortunately, the bug kept coming back no matter what strategy I used (AdAware, Spybot, HijackThis, About Buster, manual Registry edits). This About:Blank hijack is a pesky little bugger.
 
Renegade, you say that you went with the reformat. Have you completed this yet or are you still having problems with the home page reset?

If you went with the reset, PM me as I just got rid of one of these today that was giving the same symptoms you describe.

Cheers.
 
Renegade87 said:
Scero,

I tried several times removing the offending line found in the HijackThis scan results with no sucess. It is an intuitive program. Very simple to use. Unfortunately, the bug kept coming back no matter what strategy I used (AdAware, Spybot, HijackThis, About Buster, manual Registry edits). This About:Blank hijack is a pesky little bugger.
Click to expand...

Aye, Renegade. I was just clarifying in case.

When an issue like that pops up I find that 'switching to manual' and going looking for the offending files in the system folders and the registry, along with using hijackthis and msconfig are usually the best bet. Just takes patience and practice I guess.
 
arkamw said:
Renegade, you say that you went with the reformat. Have you completed this yet or are you still having problems with the home page reset? Cheers.
Click to expand...

Guy's,

I did sucessfully reformat and install XP Pro SP1a . :) No problems so far. Thanks for all your help. I'm sure several others did benefit from your experience with these dastardly bugs.

Thanks again.

Dave
 
Just to add ... you have to disable system restore before you try to delete any offending trojans ... the new ones I have seen are hiding in system restore ... so after you delete them ... they get restored again .... :mad:

These programmers are getting really good at this ... :mad:
 
look something like "About:Blank res:// "?
this should fix your program, one of the guys there wrote a tool to fix this specific hijack
Look here

also, for info on removal and prevention of spyware, see my anti spyware site
here
 
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