Member Avatar for yasminadnan

I was in my mom place and was browsing fine untill my nephew wanted to see some naimated fish. So I went to the site screensavers.com and downloaded a screensaver. Soon after the the comp started behaving funnny. When i open a blank IE page I see a a charater similar to "Y" with two dots on the character. It says Internet explorer has encountered an error and closes IE if I type in any site name and hit enter. This does not happen with every website though.

The adware says "Ad aware scan show 2 virus: one is possible bowser hijack - located on about blank page: its os reg data type n a data miner" ... it adds a "?" at the the end of website address.

Deleting the file does not seem to fix it. I tried resintalling IE through Add/Remove Windows component and using a XP cd.

and also Norton says Norton scanner not installed.

Pls help.. for i need to help my sister sort this prob as my dad uses the system for trading online and he is annoyed.

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- glad the community help got you moving. After a browser hijack there are often leftover pieces that can re-enable the problem or capture credentials. 's advice to scan was the right first step; the checklist below shows practical follow-ups to verify the system is truly clean and to protect any accounts used on that PC.

Immediate cleanup and verification: disconnect the PC from the internet, back up personal documents to external media (avoid copying executables), then run at least two different, up-to-date malware scans — including one from bootable rescue media if available — to catch rootkits and persistent components. Inspect startup points with msconfig (or Task Manager > Startup) and a utility like Autoruns to find and remove suspicious autostart entries and services. From an elevated command prompt run sfc /scannow to repair system files and ipconfig /flushdns to clear DNS cache.

Browser and system specifics: remove unknown browser add-ons/toolbars and reset the browser to defaults. Clear temporary files and cookies and check the hosts file at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts for unauthorized entries. Verify proxy settings and default search/provider settings were not changed. Reinstall or enable a reputable real-time security product and update it immediately.

Account safety and prevention: change banking and email passwords only from a different, known-clean device and enable two-factor authentication. Monitor financial accounts and notify the bank if you see anything unusual. If uncertainty remains about system integrity, prefer a full OS reinstall or restore from a verified clean image. Finally, use a non-administrator daily account, keep the OS and applications patched, and maintain regular backups to reduce future risk.

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Member Avatar for just_a_nobody

Try scanning with Ewido. You can download a trial version of Ewido here: http://www.ewido.net/en/

Be sure you update it before using it, and when it finds a problem, be sure to select the check box to do the same action (clean) when it finds a problem, otherwise, you will have to click continue, to keep scanning with every problem it finds.

Member Avatar for yasminadnan

Wow, this worked.. no more character on the about blank page and no more virus... Thanks so much for your help. :lol:

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