XP IE Hijacker and about to loose patience

[Lisa]

I recently had my home page hijacked and successfully
removed everything to do with the hijacker except one
small item. I have run Spybot and Hijack This to remove
the offending marketing agency entries. When I am in IE
and follow the menu path Tools > Internet Options I
recieve a restriction error message that tells me to
contact the system adminstrator. However, when I right-
click on the IE icon and select Internet Options I am
allowed.

No one uses my computer except myself and I am set up as
the administrator so how can I fix the problem I am
having?

Thanks,
Lisa

[Dave]

Hi Lisa,
What was the offending program? Also, if you open Spybot and click on
"immunize" , have a look and see that the option to "Lock IE start page
settings" and "Lock IE control panel" is not checked off.

"Lisa" > wrote in message
...
> I recently had my home page hijacked and successfully
> removed everything to do with the hijacker except one
> small item. I have run Spybot and Hijack This to remove
> the offending marketing agency entries. When I am in IE
> and follow the menu path Tools > Internet Options I
> recieve a restriction error message that tells me to
> contact the system adminstrator. However, when I right-
> click on the IE icon and select Internet Options I am
> allowed.
>
> No one uses my computer except myself and I am set up as
> the administrator so how can I fix the problem I am
> having?
>
> Thanks,
> Lisa

[Lisa]

Hi Dave. My sister sent me a talking birthday greeting
from Talking Buddies which is affilated with the known
hijacker searchalot.com. In order to see the card I
installed the program with the intent of uninstalling it
later. When asked if I wanted to make searchalot.com my
home page I checked the box that said no...and apparently
it does not matter if you check the no box or not.

I checked the spybot for the checkmarks and they are not
turned on. The only place I can change my internet
settings is in spybot, right-clicking on the icon for ie,
and in the registry. Something somewhere is locking down
my ability to change it from the menu bar. I have
searched the registry, but must not be looking in the
correct place....any ideas? It's not just chaning my
default location in IE, I am completely restricted from
opening internet tools via the menu path.

Thanks,
Lisa

>-----Original Message-----
>Hi Lisa,
>What was the offending program? Also, if you open Spybot
and click on
>"immunize" , have a look and see that the option
to "Lock IE start page
>settings" and "Lock IE control panel" is not checked off.
>
>"Lisa" > wrote in message
...
>> I recently had my home page hijacked and successfully
>> removed everything to do with the hijacker except one
>> small item. I have run Spybot and Hijack This to
remove
>> the offending marketing agency entries. When I am in IE
>> and follow the menu path Tools > Internet Options I
>> recieve a restriction error message that tells me to
>> contact the system adminstrator. However, when I right-
>> click on the IE icon and select Internet Options I am
>> allowed.
>>
>> No one uses my computer except myself and I am set up
as
>> the administrator so how can I fix the problem I am
>> having?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Lisa
>
>
>.
>

[Dave]

Wow Lisa, I did some searching and many people are having trouble getting
rid of this thing. I did read that an updated version of Spybot should rid
the thing, but searchalot may have "updated" to stay ahead?
Make sure Spybot is updated, then check your startup programs to make sure
its not in there. I would run regedit and search for it and destroy all i
could find. If none of this works, maybe you could reinstall IE6. In the
meantime I will keep looking around to see if I can find anyone that has rid
themselves of this. If you do find a solution on your own, please post it so
we can then help others in the future.
Cheers!


"Lisa" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Dave. My sister sent me a talking birthday greeting
> from Talking Buddies which is affilated with the known
> hijacker searchalot.com. In order to see the card I
> installed the program with the intent of uninstalling it
> later. When asked if I wanted to make searchalot.com my
> home page I checked the box that said no...and apparently
> it does not matter if you check the no box or not.
>
> I checked the spybot for the checkmarks and they are not
> turned on. The only place I can change my internet
> settings is in spybot, right-clicking on the icon for ie,
> and in the registry. Something somewhere is locking down
> my ability to change it from the menu bar. I have
> searched the registry, but must not be looking in the
> correct place....any ideas? It's not just chaning my
> default location in IE, I am completely restricted from
> opening internet tools via the menu path.
>
> Thanks,
> Lisa
>
> >-----Original Message-----
> >Hi Lisa,
> >What was the offending program? Also, if you open Spybot
> and click on
> >"immunize" , have a look and see that the option
> to "Lock IE start page
> >settings" and "Lock IE control panel" is not checked off.
> >
> >"Lisa" > wrote in message
> ...
> >> I recently had my home page hijacked and successfully
> >> removed everything to do with the hijacker except one
> >> small item. I have run Spybot and Hijack This to
> remove
> >> the offending marketing agency entries. When I am in IE
> >> and follow the menu path Tools > Internet Options I
> >> recieve a restriction error message that tells me to
> >> contact the system adminstrator. However, when I right-
> >> click on the IE icon and select Internet Options I am
> >> allowed.
> >>
> >> No one uses my computer except myself and I am set up
> as
> >> the administrator so how can I fix the problem I am
> >> having?
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Lisa
> >
> >
> >.
> >

[Lisa]

Hello Dave. I think I have finally gotten rid of it!
YEAH! I had to manually delete every entry I could find
in my registry that refered to searchalot.com....they
really had themselves spread from one end of the registry
to the other. I also made sure I was updated on both
spybot and hijack this.

Once I deleted all the registry entries and deleted the
one reference to the control panel (created by
searchalot.com) in the registry I was able to finally
access my IE preferences. My advise to everyone...don't
download the Talking Buddy stuff they are linked with
searchalot.com and will cause you no end of headaches.

Thanks for all the advise Dave!

Lisa
>-----Original Message-----
>Wow Lisa, I did some searching and many people are
having trouble getting
>rid of this thing. I did read that an updated version of
Spybot should rid
>the thing, but searchalot may have "updated" to stay
ahead?
>Make sure Spybot is updated, then check your startup
programs to make sure
>its not in there. I would run regedit and search for it
and destroy all i
>could find. If none of this works, maybe you could
reinstall IE6. In the
>meantime I will keep looking around to see if I can find
anyone that has rid
>themselves of this. If you do find a solution on your
own, please post it so
>we can then help others in the future.
>Cheers!
>
>
>"Lisa" > wrote in message
...
>> Hi Dave. My sister sent me a talking birthday greeting
>> from Talking Buddies which is affilated with the known
>> hijacker searchalot.com. In order to see the card I
>> installed the program with the intent of uninstalling
it
>> later. When asked if I wanted to make searchalot.com
my
>> home page I checked the box that said no...and
apparently
>> it does not matter if you check the no box or not.
>>
>> I checked the spybot for the checkmarks and they are
not
>> turned on. The only place I can change my internet
>> settings is in spybot, right-clicking on the icon for
ie,
>> and in the registry. Something somewhere is locking
down
>> my ability to change it from the menu bar. I have
>> searched the registry, but must not be looking in the
>> correct place....any ideas? It's not just chaning my
>> default location in IE, I am completely restricted from
>> opening internet tools via the menu path.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Lisa
>>
>> >-----Original Message-----
>> >Hi Lisa,
>> >What was the offending program? Also, if you open
Spybot
>> and click on
>> >"immunize" , have a look and see that the option
>> to "Lock IE start page
>> >settings" and "Lock IE control panel" is not checked
off.
>> >
>> >"Lisa" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> >> I recently had my home page hijacked and
successfully
>> >> removed everything to do with the hijacker except
one
>> >> small item. I have run Spybot and Hijack This to
>> remove
>> >> the offending marketing agency entries. When I am
in IE
>> >> and follow the menu path Tools > Internet Options I
>> >> recieve a restriction error message that tells me to
>> >> contact the system adminstrator. However, when I
right-
>> >> click on the IE icon and select Internet Options I
am
>> >> allowed.
>> >>
>> >> No one uses my computer except myself and I am set
up
>> as
>> >> the administrator so how can I fix the problem I am
>> >> having?
>> >>
>> >> Thanks,
>> >> Lisa
>> >
>> >
>> >.
>> >
>
>
>.
>

[Dave]

Fantastic! I would highly recommend using Spybots feature to disable any
settings changes to your IE panel. With that enabled and hijack this, you
should be fine. Here's a link to some other useful browser protection. You
will see programs like Browser Hijacker Blaster, Guard IE and Start Page
Guard.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads.php


"Lisa" > wrote in message
...
> Hello Dave. I think I have finally gotten rid of it!
> YEAH! I had to manually delete every entry I could find
> in my registry that refered to searchalot.com....they
> really had themselves spread from one end of the registry
> to the other. I also made sure I was updated on both
> spybot and hijack this.
>
> Once I deleted all the registry entries and deleted the
> one reference to the control panel (created by
> searchalot.com) in the registry I was able to finally
> access my IE preferences. My advise to everyone...don't
> download the Talking Buddy stuff they are linked with
> searchalot.com and will cause you no end of headaches.
>
> Thanks for all the advise Dave!
>
> Lisa
> >-----Original Message-----
> >Wow Lisa, I did some searching and many people are
> having trouble getting
> >rid of this thing. I did read that an updated version of
> Spybot should rid
> >the thing, but searchalot may have "updated" to stay
> ahead?
> >Make sure Spybot is updated, then check your startup
> programs to make sure
> >its not in there. I would run regedit and search for it
> and destroy all i
> >could find. If none of this works, maybe you could
> reinstall IE6. In the
> >meantime I will keep looking around to see if I can find
> anyone that has rid
> >themselves of this. If you do find a solution on your
> own, please post it so
> >we can then help others in the future.
> >Cheers!
> >
> >
> >"Lisa" > wrote in message
> ...
> >> Hi Dave. My sister sent me a talking birthday greeting
> >> from Talking Buddies which is affilated with the known
> >> hijacker searchalot.com. In order to see the card I
> >> installed the program with the intent of uninstalling
> it
> >> later. When asked if I wanted to make searchalot.com
> my
> >> home page I checked the box that said no...and
> apparently
> >> it does not matter if you check the no box or not.
> >>
> >> I checked the spybot for the checkmarks and they are
> not
> >> turned on. The only place I can change my internet
> >> settings is in spybot, right-clicking on the icon for
> ie,
> >> and in the registry. Something somewhere is locking
> down
> >> my ability to change it from the menu bar. I have
> >> searched the registry, but must not be looking in the
> >> correct place....any ideas? It's not just chaning my
> >> default location in IE, I am completely restricted from
> >> opening internet tools via the menu path.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Lisa
> >>
> >> >-----Original Message-----
> >> >Hi Lisa,
> >> >What was the offending program? Also, if you open
> Spybot
> >> and click on
> >> >"immunize" , have a look and see that the option
> >> to "Lock IE start page
> >> >settings" and "Lock IE control panel" is not checked
> off.
> >> >
> >> >"Lisa" > wrote in message
> >> ...
> >> >> I recently had my home page hijacked and
> successfully
> >> >> removed everything to do with the hijacker except
> one
> >> >> small item. I have run Spybot and Hijack This to
> >> remove
> >> >> the offending marketing agency entries. When I am
> in IE
> >> >> and follow the menu path Tools > Internet Options I
> >> >> recieve a restriction error message that tells me to
> >> >> contact the system adminstrator. However, when I
> right-
> >> >> click on the IE icon and select Internet Options I
> am
> >> >> allowed.
> >> >>
> >> >> No one uses my computer except myself and I am set
> up
> >> as
> >> >> the administrator so how can I fix the problem I am
> >> >> having?
> >> >>
> >> >> Thanks,
> >> >> Lisa
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >.
> >> >
> >
> >
> >.
> >