Actually, this is pretty easy, no Registry tweaking is required.

There's a tool for this purpose, TweakUI (http://www.annoyances.org/downloads/ftp/tweakui.zip). A good explanation with details...

At this point, you are going to need to download and run HijackThis (see my malware links below) and post a log to the Security Forum.

I'm pretty sure that what's happening is that you have...

Don't let a bad experience with Netscape 7 sour you. It's based on an early version of Mozilla (http://www.Mozilla.org), with AOL bloatware added. The current version of Moz is about 4 revs newer...

Malware is a general term for nasty software, which includes viruses, Trojans, worms, hijackers, spyware, and (to a lesser extent) adware.

Which version of Windows? Which version of OE? This information is needed for further exploration into your problem.

More information would be helpful, like which updates you have installed. XP-Service Pack 1, for example or which patches have been applied against IE (Help->About will provide that).

That having...

There are several ways around this problem. The one that comes first to mind is to download an NTFS boot disk (http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm) and use it to delete the whole directory from DOS,...

I'm not in Windows right now, so I can't check this, but, if I remember correctly, you can edit your preferences in IE to select which editor the page source opens in. By default, I'm pretty sure...

The following should also be removed as useless resource wasters:

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TaskMonitor] C:\WINDOWS\taskmon.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\QTTASK.EXE"...

Or, you could try GAIM (http://GAIM.SourceForge.net) -- it's a little lighter on resources than Trillian, and it's truly free.

Have you tried opening an Internet Explorer Window? If so, what happens?

Since the AOL browser is built on IE, this will tell us useful information.

No direct idea (you may have been hijacked), but try this as a test and work-around: right-click on the link and select Save Target As... from the drop-down menu and see if that works. The first...

I forgot to mention CoolWebSearch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoolWebSearch). You're infected with that, so you need to run CWShredder (http://www.spywareinfo.com/%7Emerijn/downloads.html), too.

This has been discussed before. See: http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread5002.html

PowerMenu is easy, though it doesn't seem to be a problem. Just delete the icon from the Startup folder and remove the directory it "lives" in. CoolSwitch is part of the Windows XP PowerToys suite,...

I second your evaluation, and add one. Unless you have a strong need for it, disable or remove:

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [IMONTRAY] C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Active Monitor\imontray.exe

It's a...

You have been hit by multiple hijackers. The one causing your main problem is the Hungry Hands pr0n hijacker. You can get rid of it with Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoft.nu)--just be sure to update...

This has no effect whatsoever on displaying graphics within HTML pages--in fact, IE is about the worst program to use for displaying stand-alone graphics. IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com) or...

Your HjT log looks clean. It would appear that your problem lies elsewhere. Note that one image did load. To start with, check this link...

Please repost your log as a flat file. Your log-file was truncated when you posted it as "code".

O4 - Global Startup: WinZip Quick Pick.lnk = C:\Programfiler\WinZip\WZQKPICK.EXE

One more suggestion: make sure that you update WinZip to the newest version 9.0 because of this...

Your logfile looks pretty clean, except for one thing:

O2 - BHO: OsbornTech Popup Blocker - {FF1BF4C7-4E08-4A28-A43F-9D60A9F7A880} - C:\WINDOWS\System32\mshelper.dll

From another post, this...

How about your service packs? Your patches? When you got to the Help menu About item, what version of IE does it show? Have you scanned for viruses? Adware/spyware?

You should also download...

MSBB is part of a known spyware installation, and can be removed with Ad-aware (http://www.lavasoft.nu) or Spybot Search & Destroy (http://security.kolla.de) (Ad-aware is easier, Spybot - S & D is...

You may have a problem connecting because one of your bits of malware replaced part of your Winsock chain with its own stuff. When you removed it, it may have "broken the chain". Here is the link...

No, it's pretty configurable--it will only delete the classes of files that you select. It works well, or I would not have linked to it, or placed it on my links page...

Yes, but that may sometimes be hard to do, as Microsoft has gone to great lengths to hide that stuff from you. See Microsoft's Really Hidden Files...

Give this (http://iisoftware.net/index.php?clean.html) a try (iisoftware.net).

Favorite icons will disappear after a while, they are not permanent (part of the History). Here's FavOrg (http://www.gratilog.net/anglais/internet/favorg.zip), and an article on it: Clean Up Your...

It depends on the brand and model; it also depends on whether the device's firmware has been updated or not. You can usually download a user manual from the router manufacturer's web site, as well.

Your Ad-aware and CWShredder are both out-of-date. They are up to 6.18 and 1.50, respectively. I don't think that's the problem, though.

That having been said, there are no nasty processes...

It applies system-wide, as does the malware. It should be all taken care of now.

Explorer has to be running, or you couldn't even bring up the Task Manager! You need to copy down what you see in the Task Manager window and post it here. We can help from there.

You have a dialer and a hijacker, as well as some useless resource-wasters. Get rid of the following:


R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page =...

You are correct, you are almost there -- to the point where most of these are merely resource-wasters (except ISTSvc):

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page =...

Yeah, I was going to credit you on the quoted reply, but I ran out of time. Done now! ...and thanks for posting it in the first place.

I know it's appreciated around here when folks report back...

Quoting myself to another board member:

One of your likely bits of malware replaced part of your Winsock chain with its own stuff. When you removed it, you "broke the chain". Here is the link...

Yes, probably CoolWebSearch or one of its variants. You can get more information and a download link for CWShredder from http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

I would run CWShredder...

One of your likely bits of malware replaced part of your Winsock chain with its own stuff. When you removed it, you "broke the chain". Here is the link to LSPFix (http://cexx.org/lspfix.htm),...

Here's one my senior-citizen students especially like: The keyboard shortcut [Ctrl]+[+] increases the font size, [Ctrl]+[-] decreases the font size--and there's about 11 size-steps, in contrast to...