obscure reference to about:blank

Have you run thru the READ ME FIRST recently or was it run several months ago?

 

A month or even two weeks is a very long time in the malware world unless the PC has had no use in that time frame.

That does not sound like an about:blank hijacker problem. You could just try a reset of your websettings.


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.

 

Yes the Use blank is just to set the page to be blank.

Try the below for the Home Page problem.

Copy the contents of the below Quote Box to Notepad. Then click File and then Save As. Change the Save as Type to All Files. Name the file UnlockHP.reg and then click save. (make sure you save it somewhere you can find it. Saving it to your Desktop may make that easy.) Then double-click on the UnlockHP.reg file on your desktop (or locate it with Windows Explorer and double click on it if not saved to the Desktop) and when it prompts to Add in to the registry, say yes

 

There is a setting someplace that is blocking the buttons from being available. This is normally contained in a registry key location. That is what that patch I gave you was attempting to fix.

Do you have administrator priviledges?
Have you tried booting in safe mode and seeing if the buttons are available?

Please follow the directions below exactly:


- Download HijackThis 1.99.1

- Unzip the hijackthis.exe file to a folder you create named C:\Program Files\HJT

- Do NOT run Hijack This from the Desktop, a temp folder, or a sub-folder of C:\Documents and Settings, or choose to run it directly from the downloaded ZIP file.

- Before running HijackThis: You must close each of the following:your web browser, e-mail client, instant messenger, and programs like notepad, wordpad, MS Word etc. And any other unnecessary running programs.

- Run HijackThis and save your log file.

- Post your log as an ATTACHMENT to your next message. (Do NOT copy/paste the log into your post).

 

How in the world did you get your Symantec software installed like the below:
C:\New Folder\navapsvc.exe
C:\New Folder\IWP\NPFMntor.exe

You have some of if installed properly to the Symantec folder but the above was a bad idea. It may be working okay (not sure) but this is not the right way to install it. All of their software should be installed in their own normal default folders.


If you are using WinXP or WinMe, make sure you have system restore disabled (per the tutorial).

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:
O6 - HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel present
O6 - HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel present

After clicking Fix, exit HJT.

Now reboot in normal mode and post a new HJT log. And tell us how things are working. Any change to your problem now.

 

I'm not sure what you are referring to? There are no suspicious entries. The only difference is that the below seem to disappear in normal mode:
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.majorgeeks.com/
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page = C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\blank.htm

I'm not sure why.
Are you logging into safe mode and normal mode on the same user account?

Try re-running the registry patch from message # 6 now.

I think you should go to the below thread and begin by completing step 1 which is Microsoft Update.

How to Protect yourself from malware!