Hi, COBOLdinosaur. You mentioned the need for a central Q for the ongoing postings of redundant and lengthy information shared among our team and hope this will serve that need. Feel free to EDIT before we finalize this.
In an effort to find a central place for all the redundant information posted and shared by many Experts here, this will attempt to collect them in one spot to minimize load times on all the other question links. They are a collection from many end-users and Experts who have used them and found them helpful and informative. There are various download sites for many of these, choose what works best for you.
--->>> Just in case your Browser is hijacked, the quickest way to close the Browser window is ALT+F4. <<<---
--->>> Whichever tool you choose, be sure that you keep the definition files updated AND read the warnings and alerts, some may impact the way your environment has run in the past <<<---
CoolWebShredder
http://www.spychecker.com/program/coolwebshredder.html here is a description of what it does
http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/10/17/10-17-143.shtmlFeatures:
· Redirections to CoolWebSearch related pages
· Redirections when mistyping URLs
· Redirections when visiting Google
· Enormous IE slowdowns when typing
· IE start page/search page changing on reboot
· Sites in the IE Trusted Zone you didn't add
· Popups in Google and Yahoo when searching
· Errors at startup mentioning WIN.INI or IEDLL.EXE
· Unable to change or see certain items in IE Options
· Unable to access IE Options at all
download here
http://www.spychecker.com/download/download_coolwebshredder.html--------------------------
--------
Hijack This and BHODemon and Browser Hijack Blaster
Hijack This
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip | Written by a member of our support forums and based on our Hijacked! article, this program scans the locations in your computer system that may be modified by browser hijackers and fixes any problems found. An easy-to-understand tutorial is available at TomCoyote.org.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads.php?cat=sp#detBHODemon
http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads/bhod/ | Think of BHODemon as a guardian for your Internet browser: it protects you from unknown Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), by letting you enable/disable them individually. This program is my choice for BHO detection and is highly recommended.
Browser Hijack Blaster
http://www.wilderssecurity.net/bhblaster.html | Running silently in the background, Browser Hijack Blaster only springs into action when an attempt is made. It watches and protects the following items: IE Homepage, IE Default Page, IE Search Page, BHOs. Whenver one of the above items is changed, or a BHO is added, you are immediately provided with information on the item, along with the option to keep the change, or revert to your previous settings.
spybot here
http://spybot.safer-networking.de/Download
http://spybot.safer-networking.de/index.php?lang=en&page=downloadAdAware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/Spycop:
http://www.spycop.com/General and overall information about Spy/Adware
http://www.cexx.org/adware.htmCool Web Shredder:
http://www.zerosrealm.com/downloads/CWShredder.ziphttp://radiosplace.com/If that doesn't do it, Hijack This will:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.htmlhttp://radiosplace.com/ This is an important article as well.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[ln];833786 Home Page Setting Changes Unexpectedly, or You Cannot Change Your Home Page Setting
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320159&Product=ie600fyi, merijn.org is being blasted by a massive DDoS, that's why it now resolves to localhost.
You can still reach it by adding "209.133.47.200
www.merijn.org" to your hosts file.
mirror is still available at:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/revised list: (only the most important free ones as compiled by LucF)
What is spyware :
http://www.spychecker.com/spyware.htmlAd-aware :
http://www.spychecker.com/download/download_adaware.htmlSpybot Search and Destroy :
http://www.spychecker.com/download/download_spybot.htmlCoolWebShredder :
http://209.133.47.200/~merijn/files/CWShredder.exe Hijackthis :
http://209.133.47.200/~merijn/files/HijackThis.exeTrojan Remover :
http://www.simplysup.com/X-Cleaner :
http://www.spychecker.com/download/download_xcleaner.htmlKL-Detector :
http://www.spychecker.com/download/download_kldetector.htmlBHODemon :
http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads/bhod/ToolBarCop:
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/toolbarcop.htmI think this is the cleanest list until now...
NOTE: I tried this before in the Lounge, see this and feel free to edit/delete:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Miscellaneous/Lounge/Q_20924179.htmlFor background information on what these things are, these links:
What is BHO (Browser Helper Object)?
The natural question is, what do BHOs do? The technical answer is "anything", but generally, it will have something to do with "helping" you browse the Internet. Of course, many BHOs are what is called "ad-ware" or "spyware": they do things like monitor the websites you visit and report this data back to their creators.
More here...
http://sysinfo.org/bhoinfo.phpFor those interested, Merijn Bellekom, the developer of the brilliant Startuplist and Hijack This! has introduced BHOList.exe. It downloads and displays the BHO Collection in a searchable & sortable list. Also from the above link.
Preventing Browser Hijacking and some insights here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/hijacked/prevent.phphttp://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/hijacked/Thanks, hope this helps trim some of our Qs.
":0) Asta
