MSN Hijacked my browsers default settings

[tech_support]

Spybot is great.
Why remove it?

I meant remove the spyware, not the program (Why would you?)

[djr33]

Ha, ok. Misunderstood.

And, just for the record, I'm quite skeptical that MSN hijacked the computer. No hacker would set it to MSN... no point. Therefore, unless miscrosoft has decided to start doing stupid illegal things, makes no sense.
Just reinstall IE if you must.

[codeexploiter]

i still feel that he misses something thats why it is going to MSN. I too rule out the browser hijacking from MSNs part but by default IE sometimes starts with MSN but once you specify it will change.

[djr33]

Right. That's why I suggest reinstalling IE.
IE is stupid anyway.
The answer: Use Firefox. http://mozilla.org Enjoy!!

[BLiZZaRD]

Crap Cleaner is a great tool as well. It lets you remove those pesky items from your add/remove programs list that wont leave, as well as a thourough cache clearing, including disk cleanup and all browsing stuff from ALL browsers at once, AND it has a great registry cleaner.

It is free as well.

[boxxertrumps]

....but be careful. Lots of spyware claims to be pc protection or the like, then makes you pay to have it remove the "spyware"... to remove itself. Annoying.

my mom always downloads the most random stuff and then gets angry at me for messing up her comp.
one time, she downloaded a game and a few days later, about every 10 minutes a IE window pops up with ads for products akin to viagra. and once in a while a spyware remover program came up in the ads. my dad tried to fix it but he had nuked some startup files and we had to get the computer wiped. this was before Ryan, the freindly neiborhood ThinkTank employee told us about Avast & Spybot.
More recently, (this morning), my moms computer refused to connect to the internet but my dads and mine are fine.
Praise Karma.

[codeexploiter]

Why don't you trying use a firewall if you have any serious problems? I would suggest a free firewall (ZoneAlarm) from zonelabs. If you don't want a free item then you can go for Zone Alarm pro, it is good and the safety is based on how you configure the firewall.

McAfee SiteAdvisor is another useful tool using which you can identify malicious web sites (don't expect 100%)

[tech_support]

Right. That's why I suggest reinstalling IE.
IE is stupid anyway.
The answer: Use Firefox. http://mozilla.org Enjoy!!

or www.getfirefox.com

[boxxertrumps]

More recently, (this morning), my moms computer refused to connect to the internet but my dads and mine are fine.
Praise Karma.

My Mom blamed me, because the virus disabled the ethernet card. i have no clue how she fixed it, she doesnt know anything about computers. Damn Karma.

[codeexploiter]

People should start consider Information security a bit more seriously now.