I think I have some spyware...

[Lizz612]

So I use FireFox and a few days ago XP decided it needed to gimme some updates or something or other. I don't really care since I don't use Microsoft's stuff for internet or for IMing. But now, instead of a nice normal error page in FireFox, it goes to microsoft.com. This annoys me to no end because it replaces the URL in the box so I can't correct it. Please someone tell me how I can fix this!

Edit: boldification!

[JohnKleeb]

1. Ad-Aware 6 by Lavasoft may help you out

[Lizz612]

2. Already got that

Plus Norton's and Spybot S&D. I've run all three with no luck. Mircosoft is still hijacking my error page!

[JohnKleeb]

3. Damnit

I can't help you Beth, those are the only ones I know about. Hope you get help, I hate it when that shit happens.

[miss_kitty]

4. go to tools options general

and paste in the home page you want there. So you need to grab up a URL of a page you want to open on and copy it, so it's in your mouse when you have the options page open.

try rootweb's spy sweeper, but be very careful what you quarantine, because you can f up programs by removing spyware...

[Lizz612]

7. Its not the homepage its hijacked

My homepage is still what its supposed to be. The page that should be "Error: Page not found" or whatever has been taken over by Microsoft!

[EstimatedProphet]

5. I use Aluria's Spyware Eliminator

It's very thorough. It's not free, but it's only $29.

[JohnKleeb]

6. Beth a suggestion should you have to reinstall your OS

Put all your important files on CDs or something. Good luck, I've had this shit happened to me before too and I can't stand it.

[Lizz612]

8. Its not worth it

Its just a buggy thing, and I can work around it, but its damn annoying is all.

[JohnKleeb]

9. Oh ok

Its gotten very bad for me in the past but just a recommendtion.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

10. Did you install XP service pack 2 recently?...............................

My folks had a bunch of problems with their internet connectivity after they installed SP2. I uninstalled it, restarted and everything seemed to work fine.

[no name no slogan]

11. Yes, rollback is your friend

I installed SP2 early on (stupid mistake). I did the old XP rollback and everything was back to normal.

Try that, and see if it works.

[Lizz612]

12. Recently but....

I had to install service pack 2 in order to get my internet turned back on. Since the round of viruses at the beginning of last school year Tech Services has been given the power turn off the internet to jacks used by students whose computers don't meet a minimum standard.

However I installed SP2 before this started, there were some other updates that XP insisted upon just before this started happening.

But do tell me how to rollback SP2, Tech Services doesn't need to know and it might help.

Edit: its not the connectivity, everything works just fine. Its *like* a bug that hijacks your homepage, but this is Microsoft, not porn and its my error page, not my homepage. I think I'm going to go also post this at a Mozilla help page.

[Lizz612]

13. I've got it

The friendly people over at http://forums.mozillazine.org/index.php helped me. For some reason it was doing an "I'm feeling lucky search on incorrect websites such as http://http//www.google.com which is the most common problem with links here at DU. (extra http).

It was a FireFox buggy thing like I suspected.

Thanks people :hi:

[JohnKleeb]

14. glad you got it under control beth

I still need to fix my sound and CD-DVD rom problem and its omg mid October now.