Virus?

[PHSikes]

HELP! I've got a problem. Whenever I sign on to Hotmail.com, it seems to work until I click to check my messages, then it comes up with this search page that is titled About:Blank. This also seems to reset my homepage to this, even tho I 've changed it back to the original a couple of times. It also has a coulple of 'pop-ups that say stuff like 'warning your computer has been exposed to parasites like spyware', and 'Online Windows spy test'. Did I pick up a virus somewhere? Is there an inexpensive (ie:free) way to check/remove it? Thanks

 

[shadowdude]

Go to www.download.com and look for something called ad-aware. Seems to me like your browser has been hijacked.

EDIT: once you've loaded ad-aware make sure you update the reference files so you have the latest definitions.

 

[Dell19]

And then get Spybot or one of the other free spyware stoppers that also allow for more indepth searching and also have immunisation options so that IE automatically blocks certain sites.

 

[shadowdude]

And then get Spybot or one of the other free spyware stoppers that also allow for more indepth searching and also have immunisation options so that IE automatically blocks certain sites.

One that stops spyware from installing is spywareblaster (link is in my sig).
Installing spywareblaster will help insure that this doesn't happen again.

@PHSikes
Did ad-aware solve the problem?

 

[Dell19]

Spybot does te same thing. Adaware is useful in that it tends to run quicker so its the one I use the most frequently and then occasionally use Spybot.

 

[PHSikes]

Thanks for the help, I tried McAfee virus scan, it seems to have worked. I'll also look at the others. That 'Hotbar' program sucks! As near as I can figure that was the start.

 

[Thrawn]

A lot of those programs that claim to offer helpful new toolbars for ie are actually spyware and aren't that helpful at all. I'd be 100% sure that was the source.

 

[Inter4]

Look for Ad-ware 6.0

very good program.

 

[Turner]

A lot of those programs that claim to offer helpful new toolbars for ie are actually spyware and aren't that helpful at all. I'd be 100% sure that was the source.

Yeah, my wife had gator installed on our PC about four years ago! Of course, now we know better.