This webpage (without the xxxxx, I added this so as to not unintenionally send people to that site) has taken over my homepage and will not let me go direct tot the homepage already in settings for IE
Any suggesstions, as I have run AVG and ad-aware and neither have found anything wrong
I got hit with this at the weekend - while Adaware did detect them it wasn't able to remove it as there was processes running which was using them wouldn't die.
I spotted the minute I got infected as my AV blocked a virus at the same time - In my system folder c:\windows\system32 I sorted the files by date modified and searched google for the list of files recently changed of which there was about 10 in total - couple of .exe's, .ico's .ldb's (I think) etc - only 1 was legit - wpa.dbl which is for windows product activation
Reboot in safe mode (hit F8) on boot and manually delete those files from Windows\system32 ... If you can't find them I did write them all down before deleting them so I may still have the list at home
follow instructions (print them out) and do not use any sensitive usernames and passwords, especially bank one, until you reboot and run all your scanners (and twice for all) and get the all clear each time
Frankly, you would be better off scrubbing the pc if you can back everything up and reinstalling everything.
Bit of overkill re-installing a PC when its relatively simple to clean
One thing I did note after cleaning it was any applications looking for internet access had to be granted on my McAfee firewall again, didn't check while the computer was infected to see if it had removed or allowed any application rules but its all looks ok since then. Ran a full AV scan after to make sure and re-ran adaware also
Another approach to safe/sandboxed browsing is to use a . If the virtual PC ever gets compromised/infected then just blow it away and start again without disrupting your real/main/host PC setup.
I don’t (didn’t) use IE for any web browsing because most of the adware and spyware gets through IE's security holes. I would suggest using firefox instead its much more secure then IE or switch to a MAC like I did and you'll have no problems with adware, spyware and viruses in general. I'd never go back to Windows.
download the browser appliance virtual machine, run it in the Player and if it gets 'infected' simply delete it , paste your bookmarks into a htm file and upload it to the net so you can find them .