Can't change browser home page

Welcome to Majorgeeks!

While malware can cause problems like you are describing so can goodware (to coin a new term). Any antivirus, antispyware, firewall,.....etc program may have features built into it to block these changes. I suggest you look at the options in Symantec since that may be your problem.

There are a few other minor things to do but they are not causes for locked home pages.

Uninstall Screensavers Installer from Add/Remove programs.

Okay now uninstall the Sunbelt CounterSpy trial since we are finished with it now! Then delete the below two folders left behind by the uninstall:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sunbelt Software
C:\Program Files\Sunbelt Software

Now disable all active protection you may have installed and make sure no programs are locking home or search page changes. Then continue!



Run HijackThis and select the following lines but DO NOT CLICK FIX until you exit all browser sessions including the one you are reading in right now:
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch =
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {549B5CA7-4A86-11D7-A4DF-000874180BB3} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {FDD3B846-8D59-4ffb-8758-209B6AD74ACC} - (no file)
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime

After clicking Fix, exit HJT.

Now we need to Reset Web Settings:

1. If you have an Internet Explorer icon on your Desktop, goto step 2. If not, skip to step 3.
2. Now right click on your desktop Internet Explorer icon and select Properties. Then click the Programs tab and then click "Reset Web Settings". Now go back to the General tab and set your home page address to something useful like www.majorgeeks.com. Click Apply. Click Delete Cookies, Click Delete Files and select Delete all Offline content too, Click OK. When it finishes Click OK. Then skip step 3.
3. If you do not have an Internet Explorer icon on your Desktop, click Start, Control Panel (for some systems it may be Start, Settings, Control Panel), Internet Options, Programs tab and then click "Reset Web Settings". Now go back to the General tab and set your home page address to something useful like www.majorgeeks.com. Click Apply. Click Delete Cookies, Click Delete Files and select Delete all Offline content too, Click OK. When it finishes Click OK.

Note for IE 7 users: You need to select Internet Options then the Advanced tab and then Reset Internet Explorer Settings!

Now reboot in normal mode
Now Copy the bold text below to notepad. Save it as fixME.reg to your desktop. Be sure the "Save as" type is set to "all files" Once you have saved it double click it and allow it to merge with the registry.

Now locate the below files and delete if found:
c:\windows\ss3unstl.exe
C:\Program Files\Screensavers.com\Installer\bin\siuninst.exe

Now run Ccleaner

Now attach the below new logs and tell me how the above steps went.

1. GetRunKey
2. HJT

Make sure you tell me how things are working now!

 

You're welcome.

Did you do the step that said to

Code:

Uninstall Screensavers Installer 

Did you find it in Add/Remove programs and did it uninstall? Either way, delete the c:\Program Files\Screensavers.com folder (but try uninstalling first)


Your log is clean. If you are not having any other malware problems, it is time to do our final steps:

1. If we used Pocket Killbox during your cleanup, do the below
   • Run Pocket Killbox and select File, Cleanup, Delete All Backups
2. If we used ComboFix you can delete the ComboFix.exe file and associated C:\combofix.txt log that was created.
3. If we user SDFix you can delete all the SDFix related files and folders from your Desktop or whereever you installed it.
4. If we used VundoFix, you can delete the VundoFix.exe file and the C:\VundoFix Backups folder and C:\vundofix.txt log that was created.
5. If we had your run FixWareOut, you can delete the Fixwareout.exe file and the C:\fixwareout folder.
6. If we had you download any registry patches like fixme.reg or fixWLK.reg (or any others), you can delete these files now.
7. You can delete the ShowNew.Zip and GetRunkey.Zip files and the files that you extracted from the ZIP files. You can also delete the C:\newfiles.txt and C:\runkeys.txt logs that were created
8. If you are running Windows XP or Windows ME, do the below:
   • go back to step 8 of the READ & RUN ME to Disable System Restore which will flush your Restore Points.
   • Then reboot and Enable System Restore to create a new clean Restore Point.
9. After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:
   • How to Protect yourself from malware!

 

You're welcome. Ok also delete the c:\Program Files\Screensavers.com folder if it still exists.

Surf safely!