HELP...my browser is hijacked

[BigdaddyF]

Whenever I open IE, a search frame opens up and connects to www.hotsearchbox.com. If thats annoying enough, from time to time that webpage opens up full screen and te only way to get rid of it is to do a forced shutdown of the browser.

I ran regedit, and deleted numerous references to www.hotsearchbox.com which will fix the problem for the session, but the next time I turn on the PC, they somehow magically return!

I run a firewall and have activex disabled...how is this site able to screw up my browser like this?

 

[igowerf]

It's probably spyware. Download ad-aware or spybot.

 

[skyking]

you have a file on your computer, a nice little bunch of crap that will replace those registry files at each reboot.
use adaware 6 to identify it, if it is not obvious. locate the file, then reboot into safe mode. Delete the bastige, and dump the trash before you reboot. Go back and purge the registry, now ad-aware will be able to vanquish it fine.

 

[teerex20]

Go into tools>internet options>under home page click use default,this will give back reg microsoft site.It seems some web pages have the ability to change your default web page.
happens to me every once and a while.Still wish i knew how they do it.

 

[BigdaddyF]

FOUND IT!

Ran msconfig, and in my start up there was a spp item which ran regedit -s C:\spp.reg

Disabled/deleted spp and problem solved!

This explains why whenever I restarted the computer, my browser was reconfigured to point to the website.

On a side note, it appears the guy took a lot of trouble to point my browser to a search site...anyone care to explain how this is supposed to be profitable?

 

[skyking]

many ways, because it was also reporting your browsing activity, hence the term "spyware".
I gave you the bulletproof method, because I recently had to do what i outlined to get rid of hotbar in someone's computer. What a pain!!