how do I change my homepage when a virus wont let me?

Question

someone sent me a link that said "can you guess who this is? get back to me" or something like that. welll I clicked on it like a goon (lol) and it was "adult friend finders" (gee, my fave, not) so now I have a virus that wont let me change my homepage. It really wants to stay on "quicknews.info" (do not go there!) The options are greyed out, making it impossible to change it back to google.ca. Any suggestions welcome

I installed norton antivirus 2007 and it deleted 2 viruses that had no name other than "virus". The home page options are still greyed out, and "recent attempts to attack my computer have just been blocked" are happening more often than what is normal. I ran adaware and spybot. adaware fixed a bunch of things, but it couldn't fix 2 things, nor quarantine them. They were registry changes. Very lovely. I tried to reformatt, but it won't let me delete the partition for a clean install, and it's also telling me it's not a good idea to install over another partition, so BLAH lol. Any more suggestions? So far so good, everyone, thanks so much for your time =)

Answer 1

Your PC is infected with a browser hijacker. Use these scans to remove it. Both are free and safe to use. After you install the, update them to get the full affect.

Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you haven't intentionally installed, if your browser crashes inexplicably, or if your home page has been "hijacked" (or changed without your knowledge), your computer is most probably infected with spyware. Even if you don't see the symptoms, your computer may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging. Spybot-S&D is free, so there's no harm giving it a try to see if something has invaded your computer.
http://www.spybot.info/

http://superantispyware.com/
SUPERAntiSpyware is the most thorough scanner on the market. Our Multi-Dimensional Scanning and Process Interrogation Technology will detect spyware that other products miss! SUPERAntiSpyware will remove ALL the Spyware, NOT just the easy ones!
Easily remove over 100,000 pests such as SmitFraud, Vundo, WinFixer, SpyAxe, SpyFalcon, WinAntiVirus, AntiVermins and thousands more!

Answer 2

You first have to get rid of the virus if you know for sure that it is a virus and not spyware.

Here is a program that will resolve the virus or spyware and will have no conflict with your antivirus system that you now have. Hope that you ran your anitvirus system you have installed now and then reboot after the virus is found.

Download load the free A2Squared free for home personal use form Austria. http://www.emsisoft.com

When the installation is complete it will show "home page you know have. Change the home page to what you desire and click save.

Download all your signatures and perform a complete scan. The complete scan will take awhile.

If you don´t have an antivirus program running you can download for free the AOL, Active Virus Shield. Use your search engine for the download. Powered by Karpersky of Russia rated # 1 in the world for virus detections. The program is free and you don´t have to be a member of AOL

Good Luck,

Minddoctor, France,

Excuse my english

Answer 3

Go to START, then CONTROL PANEL, then to INTERNET PROPERTIES, then in the window where it says home page, delete the URLs there and type: http://www.google.com/ This should do the trick. What country you from. I noticed ca on the end.

Also I presume you HAVE done a virus scan. If not go to Nortons site and you can get a Free 15 day trial antivirus program there, they have three selections there which you can try them for 15 days at a time.

Answer 4

Run the 3 scans below and then add spyware blaster to your security apps.

Update and run your Anti-Virus program. Don't have one? You can run a free online scan from CA.

http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx


Download, update and run Spybot---http://www.safer-networking.org/ . Don't forget to use the Immunize feature.


Download, update and run Adaware---http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/products/select_your_product.php

Download SpywareBlaster---http://majorgeeks.com/download2859.html

SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever being installed.

It's main features include:
- Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted pests.
- Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox.
- Restrict the actions of potentially dangerous sites in Internet Explorer.

Answer 5

The fast way is using system restore to go back to a known good time when you could use everything. The use a good anti adware program like spybot S&D or adaware SE (i use both!) to rid yourself of the adware that hijacked your browser.

To use systeme restore:

start->all programs->accessories->system tools->system restore.

To find out more about adawareSE and Spybot S&D see the reference below for a list of sites that discuss both.

Answer 6

Its not a virus, its called a page hijacker and I doubt that it came from friendfinders! Its more likely that you downloaded some freeware and it added some third party software that conained a hijacker! You wont be able to remove it until you find out what it is. You will also need to uninstall any software that you downloaded that gave it to you!

Answer 7

First get Norton or McAfee, or any other decent antivirus program. Then uninstall Internet Explorer or whatever you're using. Then, run the antivirus and get it out of your system. Reboot, and reinstall the browser. It should work.

Answer 8

if you have an antivirus software, run it to scan your computer.
if it finds some virus and hopefully if it removes then you should be able to change it.

check out this link.. which gives you free anti virus download for trial. they have almost trial for 12 month for free.

http://www.microsoft.com/nz/athome/security/downloads/default.mspx

hope it works.

Answer 9

You have spyware adware on your system. Do some scans here are some free ones if you need them http://www.basicspywaretips.com/spywareremovaltool.html hope this helps

Answer 10

download spywareblaster.com
run the program
under tools
choose IE
then change your home page in internet tools
and then lock the page in spywareblaster