My computer has been hijacked!

[Durbob]

I'm usually careful about this, but my homepage has been hijacked and i have tried every spyware,hijacked program under the sun to get rid of this pest but nothing works. It is on-search.com that it keeps going to. The only thing i have going for me now is my spysweeper program keeps telling me that my homepage has been changed and do i want to change it back. But this happens every 2 minutes and is driving me nuts. Any advise is appreciated. One guy i know who knows much more about computers than me said he had to reinstall windows to get rid of it. Hopefully theres something else i can do short of that.

Thanks
Durbob

 

[Boondox]

The best advice I could offer is to get this month's issue of PC World. They have a huge section on spyware and hijackware as well as how to defeat it and keep it from coming back. Best of luck to you. I finally gave up and switched to a different browser since most of those jerks seem to target IE.

Pete

 

[tillerkiller]

Ad-Aware SE Personal???

Spybot - Search & Destroy????

both are freeware. Try Spybot first. They both tend to catch different things.

 

[OkeeDon]

I just got hi-jacked by one of those ridiculous search pages and nothing worked -- until I downloaded Spybot Search and Destroy -- Click here . It's free to use, but the author requests donations -- which I'm going to do, after it was the only thing that fixed my problem.

I routinely use adaware, ad-watch, spy killer and spy sweeper, but when I need the heavy guns, I roll out Spybot S&D.

I described the search pages as "ridiculous"; I certainly can't understand what they hope to gain. The only thing I feel once this happens is hatred for them, and I would give up computer use altogether rather than use their "services". That doesn't seem to be a viable business model for them...

 

[Knight9]

I've had success checking out PC Hell . They had pretty good instructions for both instances I've had issues.

Good luck.
Kevin

 

[Durbob]

I have downloaded every spy program there is including those mentioned here and nothing helps. Went to pcHell and couldn't get the help i needed. I wonder if i could just delete Internet Explorer and reload it if it would help. Doesn't seem to effect firefox or opera. Just checked netscape and it is ok.

 

[texbaylea]

Dump IE and go to the new Netscape, v7.2. I have been using Netscape for years and don't miss IE at all. I run into few sites that have problems with Netscape. Occasionally I run into a commercial site with lazy programmers that don't support Netscape. I send them a nasty note and buy from some one else.

Vernon

 

[Durbob]

I already have netscape 7.2 and opera and firefox that all work ok. But i drive a truck and the board that our company bids runs on makes you have IE for it to work or otherwise i would dump IE altogether. I also love my Avant and Slimbrowser which are IE based so i want to keep them.

 

[Junkman]

You didn't say what version of Windows you are using. If it is ME or XP, there is a restore point that will take your computer back to earlier date. That is what I would do to fix the problem. I run SpyBot, Ad-aware, PestPatrol, & SpySweeper. I find spy ware on my computer all the time and I am careful where it browse. I don't open any e mail that I don't know the sender and since I downloaded the new Windows service pack 2, my e mail doesn't allow pictures in the e mail unless you click to allow them. Seems that e mail pictures can put spy ware on your computer if I properly understand what Microsoft has said in the warnings.... My computer operates with Windows XP Professional.

 

[Durbob]

I have xp pro ,but if i go back to a restore point won't i lose all the pictures i have put on my puter since the last restore point? I have several hundred pictures of my granddaughters that i wouldn't want to lose. And the xp pro that i have on my puter was on it when i bought it and it was an oem version or something that i can't upgrade to sp2. No way i'm gonna delete my xp pro with everything i have on it now, so that is not an option. I guess i might have to pay somebody to redo the registry as a last resort. I was hoping for an easy way out here, but i'm starting to lose that hope.