I can't change the IE start page

narayan · January 18th, 2002, 05:44 PM

After visiting a few websites of ill repute, one of them kindly made itself my start page, and I cannot change it. I have deleted all references to it in the registry, I have deleted 3 exe's referencing the site, and I have deleted files in the Startup folder, System32 and Dr. Watson folders, which all referenced the site. I have run a virus scan and found nothing, indicating my virus program may suck.

Win2000, IE 5.5

Any ideas?

PS... Oh yeah, it was my roommate that was surfing when this happened, not me.

hirschY · January 18th, 2002, 05:48 PM

in IE
tools, internet option, click the use current button.
problem solved.

vass0922 · January 18th, 2002, 05:51 PM

however, something else maybe starting up that is resetting it to the bad place lol

have you tried in system.ini for the "LOAD=" or "RUN=" entry? maybe nested in there as well...

Maybe win.ini can't remember.

(Run --> type "Sysedit")

jman01pa · January 18th, 2002, 05:53 PM

Did you learn a valuable lesson here?

(were they good sites? send links>)

J

BFlurie · January 18th, 2002, 06:01 PM

Some sites run a reg script to do this @ every startup. Use Msconfig or Regedit & look @ yer Run & Runonce registry entries. Higher security settings should make IE prompt to change yer startup page.

narayan · January 19th, 2002, 09:58 AM

Good idea. I found this in system.ini. I don't think it's normal. As a matter of fact, I think I'll delete them now.

woafont=dosapp.FON
EGA80WOA.FON=EGA80WOA.FON
EGA40WOA.FON=EGA40WOA.FON
CGA80WOA.FON=CGA80WOA.FON
CGA40WOA.FON=CGA40WOA.FON

Wizzard~Of~Ozz · January 19th, 2002, 10:15 AM

Those are just font files, most of the time what these sites load are .VBS files, They will load them into startup or the registry under RUN, (can't remember the key but search for runonce and it's the one above it)

narayan · January 19th, 2002, 10:45 AM

BTW, jman01pa the sites I would not recommend to my worst enemy. Well maybe.

Found Run and Runonce. Nothing there to cause my problem.

PonzSpyder · January 19th, 2002, 11:37 AM

I had this problem too with a friends computer, tried removing everything from reg and msconfig didn't help. I will try all your suggestions too, thanks

I forget the name of the thing but I was putting itself in IE as a pinkinsh GUI toolbar at the bottom and would reload itself on startup. I will post back after I find out what the name of ity was in case anyone knows a way around it.

Edit: ahh, it just came to me... It was something like "GoHip". sound familiar to anyone here? Is that the same one you having problems with?

Fingers · January 19th, 2002, 11:43 AM

Try going into Tools>Internet Options>Settings>View Objects and delete all the ActiveX controls you don't recognize. Then change your IE security settings to prevent downloading and running them again.

If you have Internet Explorer configured to automatically download and script ActiveX, you are leaving the door open for unscrupulous websites to hijack your system. JavaScript is capable of making unwanted changes to your computer also. CometCursor and GoHip are just two of the common offenders.