First of all, thanks for all of the tips on removing this problem from my computer. I read a bunch of threads and at the moment it seems that it's fixed. I've rebooted three times with no more about:blank, so hopefully it's gone.

Anyway, I haven't seen mention in a thread of multiple accounts (logins) under Windows XP. When I removed the CWS on my PC, it only eliminated it under my current login. I also have an account set up for my wife, and it was infected as well. When we logged on with her account, the CWS was there and it ended up hitting my account as well. Finally I ran CWShredder on both accounts, logged off and restarted the computer. Checking both accounts, it appears to be outta here. Hopefully it will not resurface.

Just thought I'd mention this for those that do have multiple accounts in XP. This nasty bugger apparently hits each user account and you have to make sure to clean them all individually.

alc6379 commented: Great tip! --alc6379 +3

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Thanx for your input & you are correct. Each different user must be cleared.

crunchie, I just thought of a question related to this subject. I only set up two accounts on my system, but of course there are user settings for default XP accounts as well, such as default user and I believe administrator. Since I don't technically log in under those accounts, could they be infected as well? And if so, how do you clean them?

I just want to make sure I have this bug completely wiped. Thanks.

You need to log in to every account on the computer & run the scans/tools etc. That is, the one that you sign in to, & the other user account.

Thanks, crunchie. After several days and numerous reboots and logins to each account, I have not seen any sign of the CWS on my computer. This site was a big help...keep up the great work.

The combination of CWHacker, HijackThis and Registrar Lite along with Adaware and Spybot were a lifesaver. I actually had the Trojan.StartPage virus (which messed with my notepad.exe file and I believe that is what launched the CWS, though I'm not sure), which Norton cleaned out. But without these tools, I don't know how I would have killed the CWS.

Again, thank you and all those who run this site!

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