How Do You Get Rid of "About.Blank"

"About Blank". This web page has been plaguing me for a week now.
Anyone know how the hell to get rid of it? I've run anti-virus and
Spybot and they don't 'see' it.

"Barry Bruyea" wrote in message
...
"About Blank". This web page has been plaguing me for a week now.
Anyone know how the hell to get rid of it? I've run anti-virus and
Spybot and they don't 'see' it.




Remove Adware & PUPs with these tools. Check for updates first and then scan
with each one at a time.

AdwCleaner (Free)
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

MBAM (Get the free version)
https://www.malwarebytes.org/free/

Junkware Removal Tool (Free)
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/down...-removal-tool/

HitmanPro (30 day free trial)
http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro

If necessary, reset your browsers. For IE:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...lorer-settings

On 12 Jun 2014, Barry Bruyea wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

"About Blank". This web page has been plaguing me for a week now.
Anyone know how the hell to get rid of it? I've run anti-virus and
Spybot and they don't 'see' it.

You give precious little detail.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894269

https://www.google.com/search?q=about+blank

Barry Bruyea wrote on 2014/06/12:

"About Blank". This web page has been plaguing me for a week now.
Anyone know how the hell to get rid of it? I've run anti-virus and
Spybot and they don't 'see' it.

Based on the near complete lack of any details in your post, here's my
guess ...

How about changing the home page in your unidentified web browser?

VanguardLH wrote:
Barry Bruyea wrote on 2014/06/12:

"About Blank". This web page has been plaguing me for a week now.
Anyone know how the hell to get rid of it? I've run anti-virus and
Spybot and they don't 'see' it.

Based on the near complete lack of any details in your post, here's my
guess ...

How about changing the home page in your unidentified web browser?

A Google says "About Blank (PUP) is a variant of Cool Web Search."
It's a browser hijacker.

And the stuff I've read so far, isn't that encouraging, so
I'll stop right there. It's not Sality, but it's not easy
to remove either. Perhaps it will require some guided help
at Bleepingcomputer.com .

HTH,
Paul

On Thu, 12 Jun 2014 12:50:41 -0700, "Bruce Hagen"
wrote:


Remove Adware & PUPs with these tools. Check for updates first and then scan
with each one at a time.

I see PUPs mentioned on Bleepingcomputer too, but they dont say what it
means. What is it? Or what do the letters stand for?

wrote:
On Thu, 12 Jun 2014 12:50:41 -0700, "Bruce Hagen"
wrote:

Remove Adware & PUPs with these tools. Check for updates first and then scan
with each one at a time.

I see PUPs mentioned on Bleepingcomputer too, but they dont say what it
means. What is it? Or what do the letters stand for?


Potentially Unwanted Program.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware

"Grayware

Another term, PUP, which stands for Potentially Unwanted Program
(or PUA Potentially Unwanted Application), refers to applications
that would be considered unwanted despite having been downloaded
by the user (users may fail to read a download agreement). PUPs
include spyware, adware, and dialers.
"

They use terminology like that, for legal reasons. Some of the
PUP companies are litigious. So rather than an AV company calling
their software "malware", which is what an end-user would call it,
they "fluff up the name" and call it a PUP instead. That way,
the lawyers won't sue them.

We're still waiting to find people who actually *want* the PUP :-)

I'm sure you've seen the screenshot, of a browser with
too many toolbars on top... PUPs FTW.

http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.6080...50701&pid=15.1

HTH,
Paul

On Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:31:08 -0400, Paul wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:
Barry Bruyea wrote on 2014/06/12:

"About Blank". This web page has been plaguing me for a week now.
Anyone know how the hell to get rid of it? I've run anti-virus and
Spybot and they don't 'see' it.

Based on the near complete lack of any details in your post, here's my
guess ...

How about changing the home page in your unidentified web browser?

A Google says "About Blank (PUP) is a variant of Cool Web Search."
It's a browser hijacker.

And the stuff I've read so far, isn't that encouraging, so
I'll stop right there. It's not Sality, but it's not easy
to remove either. Perhaps it will require some guided help
at Bleepingcomputer.com .

HTH,
Paul
For many years, first with IE, then Firefox, now Chrome, I've had my
home page set to about:blank - I just happen to prefer my browser to
start with a blank page.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what is the problem with the
about:blank being discussed in this thread?

Davidm wrote:
On Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:31:08 -0400, Paul wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:
Barry Bruyea wrote on 2014/06/12:

"About Blank". This web page has been plaguing me for a week now.
Anyone know how the hell to get rid of it? I've run anti-virus and
Spybot and they don't 'see' it.
Based on the near complete lack of any details in your post, here's my
guess ...

How about changing the home page in your unidentified web browser?
A Google says "About Blank (PUP) is a variant of Cool Web Search."
It's a browser hijacker.

And the stuff I've read so far, isn't that encouraging, so
I'll stop right there. It's not Sality, but it's not easy
to remove either. Perhaps it will require some guided help
at Bleepingcomputer.com .

HTH,
Paul
For many years, first with IE, then Firefox, now Chrome, I've had my
home page set to about:blank - I just happen to prefer my browser to
start with a blank page.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what is the problem with the
about:blank being discussed in this thread?

I do not deny the existence of "about:blank" as a URL
and a feature of Firefox. As far as I know, "about:blank"
doesn't work as such on Internet Explorer.

I take it the OP has classified this by the browser
behavior involved. And not by accidentally selecting a blank
page as the home page in IE, or using "about:blank" in Firefox.

And the people who write this stuff, probably can't stop
laughing their asses off, at the confusion they cause. This
is apparently a PUP, but with above-average tenacity, which
is why I can't expect one pass of this to help.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

Paul

On Fri, 13 Jun 2014 04:08:51 -0400, Paul wrote:


I'm sure you've seen the screenshot, of a browser with
too many toolbars on top... PUPs FTW.

http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.6080...50701&pid=15.1


That's almost funny. It must take a half hour just to load that browser
with all those toolbars.....

I wont allow even one toolbar. Dont want them. Not even the legitimate
ones (if there are any which are truly legitimate these days).

On 6/13/2014 10:45 AM, Paul wrote:
I do not deny the existence of "about:blank" as a URL
and a feature of Firefox. As far as I know, "about:blank"
doesn't work as such on Internet Explorer.

It works just fine under IE9 and I believe other IE versions as well. In
fact, if you go into Internet Tools and tell it to start up with a blank
page, it inserts to use "about:blank" in the URL field.

It also works with Maxthon v3. Maxthon can also use "about:last". Tried
this under Firefox v23 and IE9 and they don't support "about:last". What
this does is to popup the last opened tabs when it was closed last. You
can reopen all, some, or none of them.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Kingston 120GB SSD - Thunderbird v24.4.0
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 7 Home SP1

On 13 Jun 2014, Davidm wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

For many years, first with IE, then Firefox, now Chrome, I've had
my home page set to about:blank - I just happen to prefer my
browser to start with a blank page.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what is the problem with the
about:blank being discussed in this thread?

The OP seems to be referring to some malware that has been installed
and is messing up his browser. However has expressed his question in
such a vague way that we can't tell for certain. Maybe he'll be back to
clarify things, but I'm not counting on it.

Paul wrote:

I do not deny the existence of "about:blank" as a URL
and a feature of Firefox. As far as I know, "about:blank"
doesn't work as such on Internet Explorer.

about:blank has worked in IE since version 6. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_U...ic_about:_URIs

Netscape started it but other web browsers took it up. They don't
support all the same directives specified after "about:" because they
have differing feature sets.

I take it the OP has classified this by the browser
behavior involved. And not by accidentally selecting a blank
page as the home page in IE, or using "about:blank" in Firefox.

And the people who write this stuff, probably can't stop
laughing their asses off, at the confusion they cause. This
is apparently a PUP, but with above-average tenacity, which
is why I can't expect one pass of this to help.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

The others that I've seen recommended for this crap a

Junk Removal Tool (JRT)

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (free unless you want to pay for their
on-access scanner)

See:
http://www.ehow.com/about_6527033_bl...s-removal.html

The problem is that after eradication of the virus the user still has to
undo the changes made by the virus. AV or cleaner programs may
disinfect but the changes the virus made could also be changes the user
made, so resetting the changes to the defaults could end up changing
settings the user made whether they had the virus or not. I've run into
this with MalwareBytes where they identify a changed setting as a
possible fingerprint of malware but it was a setting that *I* changed.

Seems the recommendation is to scan with a decent AV program. The OP
never mention what AV progoram he uses. If he's using Clam Antivirus
(or those using Clam as the engine; e.g., Immunet), for example, he
might as well uninstall it and leave his host open. As for Spybot, I
haven't trusted that product for many years to catch anything.

The virus came from something the OP decided to install. Something
shiny caught his eye, was free, and he downloaded and installed it. If
he can remember when he did that, he might have a restore point he could
use with System Restore to get rid of the registrations, BHOs, and other
crap (other than files) that the virus changed.

Since About Blank is a variant (polymorph) of CoolWebSearch, perhaps the
CWShredder tool might work. Last I remember, Trend Micro acquired it
from the original author (Merijn). I can't find CWShredder at Trend,
like at http://www.trendmicro.com/us/securit...ts/#free-tools, but
it has a May 5 upload date at Softpedia so it's not too old (i.e., it's
been updated in about the last month).

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Interne...Shredder.shtml

On Thu, 12 Jun 2014 16:07:30 -0400, Nil
wrote:

On 12 Jun 2014, Barry Bruyea wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

"About Blank". This web page has been plaguing me for a week now.
Anyone know how the hell to get rid of it? I've run anti-virus and
Spybot and they don't 'see' it.

You give precious little detail.

Well I probably have the same thing and I've had it for a year or more,
I think

I use Firefox, and often, I just click on a proper place to click on one
or another url (I haven't noticed a pattern yet) and up pops a browser
box, (a Window, but without the command bar, tool bar, etc), not full
screen, labeled about: Blank. If I wait long enough some
advertisement will start to fill the box, with a URL that starts with
one of those famous advertising url nodes, (I forget how they start)
But normally, without even rushing, I can X Close the box and that's the
end of it for a few days.

So I havent' been annoyed enough to post here, but I'd be happy if you
all had an answer specific to this so I could get rid of it too.

No other unwanted Windows pop up. I don't think this is related,
except to show how few pop-ups I get, other than the one above: Once
in a while I get a yellow? bar across the top of the window that says a
window is trying to pop up and what do I want to do with it. If I click
on the far right, it gives choices to make an exception for the current
webpage, to NOT allow it, and maybe a 3rd choice. It doesn't have the
choice I want, which is to make an exception for this webpage THIS TIME.
, but I sometimes say make and exceptoin for the webpage and I havent'
regretted that yet.


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894269

https://www.google.com/search?q=about+blank

On Fri, 13 Jun 2014 15:37:51 -0400, Nil
wrote:

On 13 Jun 2014, Davidm wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

For many years, first with IE, then Firefox, now Chrome, I've had
my home page set to about:blank - I just happen to prefer my
browser to start with a blank page.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what is the problem with the
about:blank being discussed in this thread?

The OP seems to be referring to some malware that has been installed
and is messing up his browser. However has expressed his question in
such a vague way that we can't tell for certain. Maybe he'll be back to
clarify things, but I'm not counting on it.

I wonder where all these people go. Does someone read Usenet and
kidnap people who ask strange questions. Are they holding them for
ransom? What is the ransom required? I'd be glad to chip into a
fund, because I know I ask strange questions, and I might need redeeming
some day.