Hijacker???

[silver]

:newbie:
Hi to all
Has anyone had a problem with "about Blank" hijacker trying to load (or appearing to) with Vista Ultimate?
Running a dual boot with XP Pro and dont get the problem with XP

04/04/07.
Sorryall I should have noted that the "about blank" note simply says "waiting for about blank" so far it has not loaded or gone further. It doesnt appear in internet options or anywhere else in either XP or Vista Ultimate and so far is not a problem. (yet)
I notice that it occurs particularly when I open ebay.uk home page but only on Vista.

[CrowdAds]

[ultralexy]

I've had the about:blank hijacker on two pcs running xp pro and it was no fun to get rid of, but I haven't heard of anyone experiencing it on vista yet. I did see that hijackthis, a free registry utility, has come out with a beta version that is supposed to be vista compatible. you might try running that to diagnose your pc to see if you have the about:blank hijacker first. it was very helpful in removing it for me on xp. let me know if you need help with hijackthis. and as always, any time you work with your registry you should make a backup first.

[Snuffy]

HiJackthis the old version also worked in Vista... just not all the bells and whistles as the new version... due to some Vista (things) the old HiJackThis had problems removing some....

Here's the problem - Internet Explorer seems to have decided that the home page About:blank is what will greet you every time you open a new browser window. You try to change it back but either your Internet Options are greyed out or you change the page back, only to find next time you start Internet Explorer the dreaded About:blank has returned.

There are many possible causes for this behaviour and most are evil. One possible cause is a virus, but this is not very common. The most likely culprit is an adware/browser hijack program - in particular, CoolWebSearch.

The symptom that identifies the CoolWebSearch or a close variation is that About:Blank appears as the address, but in the background a window pops up stating that spyware, adware or something similar has been found on your system. CoolWebSearch is a browser hijack program - it takes over your home page, and keeps changing it back. Its purpose is to show you advertising, or flog you an over-priced piece of software to fix the issue CoolWebSearch has created. The About:Blank change is a trick designed to confuse users - regrettably, it is very successful!


The simplest way to remove the About:Blank adware is to use a specially designed tool and clean up your system. Step one is to flush out all the temp files on your system: Cookies, Temporary Internet Files and Temp files (you can do this via Internet Explorer's Tools-Internet Options or for a more thorough clean, use a privacy tool such as Tracks Eraser Pro 5). Next up, get a copy of CWShredder. This should kill CoolWebSearch and allow you to change your home page from About:Blank, plus it will kill those pop up windows.

If these options don't work, you may need a more in-depth tool .

The About:Blank deception is devious enough already - it may be altered in the future, so keep an eye out for other programs that contain it (main sources: free programs with adware files) - and stay clear. Finally, consider adding an anti-adware tool to work next to your anti-virus software.