Does anyone else get this weird start page?
 

Thanks to everyone who gave advice on my CD burner. :p So I have another question--here in the past week or two, this strange start page has been coming up instead of my usual one when I open Internet Explorer. It has a huge STOP sign on it, and it asks if your computer has exhibited any "symptoms" like acting weird, increased pop-ups, a different start page on the Internet, among a couple of other things. Well, that's all fine and dandy, but whenever you try to go to another web page, it won't do anything. The computer just sits there. I'm starting to think my computer has some kind of virus, but I've been careful--I don't download songs, I don't open strange e-mails, etc. I can avoid it by hitting the stop button right when I open Internet Explorer, but if I forget and that page comes up, that's it, I have to restart the computer just to get it to go away. Has anyone else had this problem?

I visited a site once that reset my start page to something stupid like that. I just went into the "tools" menu and then "internet options" and saw that my start page had in fact been changed, so I changed it back to yahoo. That might not be the same thing you have, though, because mine didn't freeze up the computer.

Firstly follow valkyrie's correct advice. (It's set back via internet options in the tools menu in IE).

Second, the problem was caused by a browser hijacker - rogue adware/malware software that installed itself to your machine. Not a virus as such.
To remove it I recommend the sypware removal tool Spybot - Search and Destroy here's a link. Also, the other main program for removal is called Ad-aware; again, here is a link.

I prefer Spybot myself but recommend you use Ad-aware next too as sometimes one finds things the other does not. In the case of both programs - once installed, do use the updates feature (in the online menu or download reference file sections) to access the latest updates for the removal programs.
Then, fix the problems they find. Spyware S&D also has an immunize feature, a lock host page option etc which helps in the future.

Thanks! :) I changed the homepage back to Yahoo, but I ran Ad-aware earlier today and it turned up nothing. I might have to get that Spybot or whatever it is, too, 'cause that was really annoying. Do you know what web sites have those things so I can avoid them next time?

Lol you ask some funny questions Dana. Spybot S&D also has in its tools menu a limited block hosts function that can be set to block some sites it lists, that're known for bad behavior like this. I'll try to answer, many sites are problematic, that's why regular use of such tools like Spybot are a good idea.
Can't guarantee the info will be interesting!

Sex and pornography sites often install browser hijackers or pop-up programs or diallers. Also, mistyping URLs slightly as you no doubt know often brings you unwillingly to a site like a porn site or search site? Some of these hijack your browser, you find the search/home pages set to those sites. A certain percentage of this hijacked traffic will buy access to the sites so they continue in doing that.

Also, often on free websites (tripod, geocities type) though non-free ones admittedly too, the pop-up ads ask you (in an official Windows looking dialog box) do you want to install Gator/GAIN/precision date and time update, etc etc etc. For this reason, never click 'Yes' to a "Do you wish to download and install..." prompt unless you're sure you trust the publisher of the software. E.g. if I'm browsing 'Yahoo.com' or 'Microsoft.com' themselves and I want to use a feature and a popup asks me to install a helper to that feature, I might click onto it.
Sometimes sites (or pop-up ads) try to fool you into clicking 'Yes' by stating that the software is necessary to view the site, or opening endless error windows if you click 'No'.
Some of these malware programs just exploit security holes in IE and install themselves invisibly (which can be prevented/helped by downloading the relevant Microsoft patches).

It's not so much a case of avoiding web sites as often it gets onto your machine via mistyped URLs or via security holes in IE or by clicking yes to installers etc; stuff like that. Updating IE if not done so & using regularly updated (!) anti-Spyware tools is the best course of action. :)
Hope that helped.

My mom had me install Spybot and it really does help alot. I strongly recommend it. and the adware one also. my browser was being hijacked almost every day!!! its such a pain in the ass.

What, was that wishful thinking? :p

Thanks a bunch for the help. I'm going to try those things you mentioned. The problem is, my family gets on the computer and clicks around and they're not very careful...my 13-year-old sister especially. And then when something goes wrong, they're hollering at me to come fix it. :p I got rid of that awful start page thanks to y'all--but shhhh, don't tell, my family thinks I "fixed" it on my own. ;)

I knew there was a thread on this somewhere, so I'm bumping it in the hopes that someone here will be able to help me.


So, I have a similar problem to ActungBabay, in that my family (my mom and 14-year-old brother - and his friends) uses my home computer more than I do and that I have to fix it when it's messed up (and I'm usually the only one who even notices when it's messed up). Saturday, I went online at home for the first time in about a month, and when I opened IE, a different home page popped up. I thought that was weird, but then I thought that maybe my brother or one of his friends changed my homepage for some reason, so I went into Internet Options and changed it back to my normal homepage - yahoo.com. When I hit the home button to get to Yahoo, it sent me to the same page that it was at before (motor-search.com, but don't go there in case it ends up doing the same thing to your computer!). I thought maybe we had a virus or something, so I updated my virus definitons and ran Norton, but nothing came up. Then, I thought it must be some kind of spyware, so I downloaded both Adaware and Spybot and ran them both at least 3 times (and they both caught stuff, including motor-search trying to redirect my IE), but the problem is still happening. So, my next move was to do a system restore back to the beginning of April, when I knew the computer was working ok, which didn't work either. My last-ditch effort was to download the Windows XP Updates, which again did not fix the problem. I can't get onto Yahoo or any other search engine (i.e. Google or MSN); I can get into Yahoo mail only because I have the direct link to that bookmarked, and other web sites are working ok. This problem is only happening with IE. AOL is working fine, but I don't like using AOL, plus we'll need IE working when we get rid of AOL.

So, does anyone have any idea of how I can get rid of this particularly nasty bug? The only other thing I can think of is to completely reinstall Windows, which I don't want to have to do. Thanks!

Handle it in the spybot program. Theres an extra step you arent doing. You have to go into the menu, and select 'tools' then "browser pages" where you can delete any pages that shouldnt be there.

You can eliminate this by telling EVERYONE who uses your computer to NEVER click yes when a pop-up asks you to install a program to run something. On average, the onyl thing you will need to say yes to is the first couple of times you use your computer and that will be to OK Java install and Adobe Acrobat. (On occasions a few media plug ins and CODEC's) but generally just surfing, always say no. These hijacks dont just happen, you have to install them, always by it askign you if you to say yes to something. Be careful, it could be something just as bening sounding as 'click here to win $1,000" or "do you think John Kerry would make a good president? Click here for yes" That will download all kinds of nasty things from hijacker programs and trackers to the very malicious dialers, which are programs that make use of dial up lines, get an outside line and dail a companies 1-900 line at a cost of $30 a pop or more. You get slammed with the bill. EVERYONE should have spybot or equavelant (the free Norton doent compare, but is necessary as they are different progs with diff functions). Spybot is free and avaiable from downloads.com. Needs to be run at least monthly. Keeps your PC healthy and running fast.

Also yearly, take it outside (really outside) and open the cover up and take a can of compressed air and spray off all the components. With the fans in there, you'd be amaized how much dust those things collect.

Just to add to decadence's post:

After installing Adaware and Spybot, make sure you scan for firmware updates. When you download these programs, they sometimes will not come with the newest firmware updates. These updates are important since spyware is constantly changing and finding new ways of hiding itself on your PC. These updates will help get rid of the newest spyware.

Make sure to scan for firmware updates about every month or so.

ZTAngel, I said that :p. :D
Also, as an additional tip on Spybot; when downloading the updates as ZTAngel iterates, if it seems to hang when using the update feature, there's a pulldown menu to change the update sites - spybot SD.com, 'EON' etc etc so you can switch between them if any probs. come up.

DWAlphaGam, yup the Spybot & Ad-Aware tools mentioned earlier in the thread will make your computer happy again. No need at all for any re-installation. :)

Also lifesaver's advice was really good, if something comes up saying "your computer is br0ken and you need "this"", just say no! :p

DWAlphaGam, if the problems still happen after downloading those updates, come back to us in the thread.

I just had the same thing again and it took me days to get rid of all the crap. I did adaware and spybot, but also did the free virus scan here and it found a few more things.

Thanks for the advice, guys!

I ended up doing a Google search (from work) about my particular problem, and I found this website with instructions on how to remove it with a program called HijackThis: http://www.able2know.com/forums/about21407.htm. I did that and it's working now. :)

I just want to know how to get rid of the stupid windows messenger box that comes on when you boot up ... it is annoying!

I ended up getting rid of Kazaa altogether because Kazaa put a bunch of spyware onto my PC [GAIN, Gator, PerfectNav]. It simply wasn't worth it. One day my PC wouldn't boot properly and I ended up having to do a system restore. At that time I was already running AdAware, but just AdAware alone didn't do the job. Since I've been running that and SpyBot, plus multiple virus checks and cleaning stuff a month, my PC's finally running great.