Scumware/Trojan, ew. Help.
It's coolwwwsearch. Spybot removes it, but it comes back when I restart the computer. CoolShredder is supposed to remove it, but I can't find a site to download it from that works.
I've read that removing it manually is near impossible and even pros have messed up their computers trying.
Anyone got any suggestions on how to get rid of this?
It isn't a virus, and the virus software won't pick it up.
I'm on WindowsME with IE.
Gina
Help! Browser hijacked
Discussion in 'Computers & Technology Forum' started by Gina B, Mar 23, 2004.
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MsGuidedAngel MemberSite Supporter
Hiya Gina!
*Drop IE!! it's NOT good at all. I use Opera 7.23 Internet Browser with no problems at all. IT also comes with a built in Pop-Up Stopper that Works Great! Dump IE, I only use on my computer Windows XP Home Edition once in a great while. Opera lets me have 7 ot more web pages open at the same time in once screen. All I have to do is click which web page I want to see. They can be pancaked on top of each other too YaY! Anyhow, Opera 7.23 Software has free downloads for Windows ME YaY! The link is below for you.
"Opera 7.23 Free Downloads"!
Love Sis, :D
"Kristi Ann's Haven" -
Hi Gina.
Download ad-aware and see if that will get rid of it. I had something that hijacked my browser and downloaded ad-aware which got rid of it.
Kim -
Ad aware should work, but honestly, if you are using IE, you are asking for this type of problem.
Opera is supposed to be good, Firefox by Mozilla is great, the best browser I have used. Most all the Mozilla browsers and mail tools are good. www.mozilla.org, they are all free, open source -
I got a shredder tool and that worked. Spybot would take care of it temporarily, but if I restarted the computer it would be back.
Before I couldn't get the shredder downloaded and was panicking!
Gina -
Gina, there was a setting in your registry that caused it to keep coming back.
The software that hijacked your browser made a change to the registry settings for IE; you'd change it while it was running, but as soon as you re-booted, the system looked at the registry, saw the settings from the hijacking program, and re-instituted the hijack. The hijackers are taking advantage of known security flaws in Internet Explorer.
I really suggest you take the advice above, and experiment with Opera, or even Mozilla Firefox. Even Netscape. These browsers come with pop-up killers, and currently are coded securely enough that hijackers don't affect them. (that could change in the future, but they're much safer than IE for right now) -
Dave.