hi, new here.

take a wild guess...

that's right...

searchportal.info.com

YAY! this one was nasty... it didn't just hijack IE or reset my homepage. it literally popped up a new searchportal page about every 6 seconds (faster if i was typing or clicking). YUCK!

but, i think i got rid of it with HJT. after 2 days of safe mode and disabling system restore and rebooting and adawair and cwshredder and ccleaner, i think i have won the battle. other than the strange message i received during the fix (something about could not remove a BHO, please use lspfix?), it was too easy. 2 things stuck out on my report, for those who ever get ahold of this nasty booger:

1) O23 - Service: Messssanger - Unknown owner - c:\Recyclers\svchost.exe
2) umm... forgive me for not copying the exact line, but the end title was "bittorrentsearchassssistant.exe" ... yeah... no need for THAT to be around.
(look at all the "S"... cute)
then, i clicked EVERYTHING that had internet explorer in the title.

which brings me to why i'm here. problem solved, right? well, no.

this situation has finally convinced my wife to end her love affair with IE and jump into the mozilla-me-mix. YAY! I WIN!

but... ummm... i can't uninstall IE.

it's not in my add/remove list anywhere. there is no uninstall on my program list. and there is no remove or uninstall in the actual c\... file.

so, yeah. i feel kinda stupid (or duped) cause i can't even remove IE.

help.


and tell me if you think i missed the boat and i'm just living in a dream that searchportal is gone.