Another hao123 cry for help

Hi helpful geeks,

I have problems with removing hao123 from my IE9. I never use IE, so I have no idea when I got it/where I got it from. I only noticed this problem today when trying to rearrange my desktop icons.

I ran the READ & RUN ME FIRST steps, to no avail. I've read through other threads on this topic, but just in case, I'm posting my own. I believe RogueKiller found multiple issues that I did not fix (because the instructions told me not to). I've attached the 5 logs from my initial attempt. Please help!

Pwiry

P.S. Not sure if relevant/important, but I recently ran a registry cleanup on CCleaner (already had it on my computer). I noticed that the instructions strictly noted not to run a registry clean, so sorry if that changes anything. :hammer

 

Problem still exists. Here's the log.

 

I updated IE via windows update, and after restarting my IE won't open at all. When I click on IE on my desktop I see my cursor turn for maybe 2 seconds, then it turns back to the normal arrow, and nothing else happens. Attempting to start IE from start menu also does nothing, even if I choose to start with no add-ons.

I can tell the hao123 is still affecting IE when I right-click on the icon. The only options I get are "My home page" "delete" "paste" in chinese, and "cut" "create shortcut" in english.
my home page -> hao123 (now nothing, IE won't open)
delete -> internet options (still pops up)
paste -> internet options
cut -> nothing
create shortcut -> I'd rather not.

edit: Also, I had a problem with Security Update KB2835361, not sure why. Error code according to microsoft only means 'incomplete installation', nothing specific.

 

Patched again after restarting, the update worked this time. IE is in same condition as last post.

 

That was the first thing I tried even before coming on this forum, because it's so straightfoward. Unfortunately, nothing worked. And no matter how I change IE's settings, it'll change it back as soon as the settings window is closed. (Of course, now I can't even open IE. Not sure which is better.)

I read in another thread here that the person asking for help found a chinese program that was responsible for the hao123 business. I've already gone through and deleted what I could before posting this thread as well.

Granted I never use IE, this really isn't something that's getting in my way, and I'm not sure if I'd want to reset my entire computer for this. But I really don't like the implications that I might have other unknown things on my computer, etc etc. If it seems to be purely adware, and on a program I'm not even using, what do you think would be the best approach?

 

Hi there! Log is attached. Combofix somehow decided to install itself in Chinese, so sorry if you have any trouble reading it. After running combofix, my IE icon now looks like a blank page, like this, and has no name under it. Double clicking does nothing, and right clicking now shows "cut" "create shortcut" and "delete" in English.

So I guess that's some sort of improvement? If i click on delete, I get a notification that says: "Are you sure you want to delete these icons from your desktop? To restore it later, go to Control Panel." I can't tell if this is a broken piece of IE, or what, but it seems like my computer now thinks it's IE (and delete no longer takes me to internet options).

What should my next step be? Should I try to reinstall/fix IE somehow to check if hao123 is actually gone, or leave it as is?

 

First I deleted everything, and it didn't really make a difference. The icon was still inactive. However, I searched for IE from start menu, and went straight to internet options without trying to open IE first (I probably should have tried, just to see..), and reset IE. IE opened just fine from the start menu, yay!!

The icon still did nothing, so I deleted it from my desktop. It's easy enough to make a IE shortcut to the desktop so that's not a problem at all.

YAY! Thank you very much for all your help! :drool I'm glad that's finally been taken care of. Is there a thread you can link me to for safely uninstalling all the programs I put onto my computer? Or can I just delete most of them directly?

Thanks again!

 

Awesome! Thank thank and thank you so much for your help and your time! :heart