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Part I:
First, just be sure you have no utilities which has been installed to lock the home page
a. "HijackThis" is a general homepage hijacker, detector, and remover which you may be using, (Config, Main, Below URLs will be . . ).
b. "Spybot Search&Destroy v1.3" has a lock (Tools, IE tweeks, middle box check).
Part II:
1. To change the Startup Home Page in Internet Explorer:
Note: Be advised that if you join an MSN Internet Access account that the home page site could be specifically set by the provider from whom the software was liscened and there is little if anything which can be done to change it. Microsoft has licensed their software out and an ISP has the option to specified a specific home page, and if they do decide, there may be no way of changing it.
a. Start Internet Explorer.
Note: For convenience you should locate and access the site which you want set as the startup home page. Otherwise,
b. Select Tools from the Main menu and then select Internet Options... - The Internet Options dialog box appears.
c. In the Home page group, do one of the following:
? Type the URL for the specific page wanted in the Address box.
? To use the currently displayed page resident in an active session of IE, click Use Current.
? To set the startup page to a blank page, click the button labeled Use Blank.
? To set the startup page to the Microsoft Network home page, click Use Default.
d. It is also suggested that should there be a check mark in the box Enable Install On Demand under the Browsing section that it be removed (Tools, Internet Options, Advanced tab). Supplemental reading: (opens in a separate window), "Description of the "Install on Demand" and "Automatically Check for Updates" Features (Q222639):
Specifies to automatically download and install Web components if a Web page needs them in order to display the page properly or perform a particular task.
e. To close the Internet Options dialog box, click Apply and then click OK to Exit.
2. If you change a default home-page setting from a particular Web address and then restart Internet Explorer or click Home in Internet Explorer, your home page may revert right back to the previous site. This anomaly can occur if you downloaded a program from the Web as part of a package for the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or certain other packages as explained in #1 above. These ISP hacked versions of IE may placed executable files in the Windows\System folder and add run-line entry in the win.ini file which could reset the home page each time Windows boots. Investigate what loads and runs in the background and make a determination what causes the anomaly. Perhaps a CAD (the key combination ctrl+alt+del) or the System Configuration Utility (SCU) in Windows 98 can be used to ascertain the culprit. After finding the possible cause, it may be necessary to edit the Win.INI file to remove any items to circumvented their execution.
a. Click Start, Run, type win.ini, and then click OK or simply press Enter.
b. In the Notepad window, scroll down until you see either or both the lines Run= and/or Load=. If there is a/are executable program(s) on either line, a semicolon in front of that line will circumvent loading -- a deletion will work also. Simply leave any other item when there is more than one.
c. On the File menu, click Save. The system must be rebooted before these type changes take affect.
3. If nothing was found in the Win.INI file, it is possible that something was written to the system registry.
a. To start the System Registry Editor, click Start, Run, type regedit, and then press Enter.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run
b. Click the Plus box in front of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to expand it and continue clicking/expanding appropriate folders (each word preceded by a slash) until reaching the last folder named, "Run". Click it to bold/highlight.
c. Look for the possible culprit in the right window and highlight it.
d. On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click Yes to confirm the deletion.
e. Click Registry in the toolbar and select Exit, or simply click the x in the URHC to close the Registry Editor tool.
4. If however, every option for the home page is grayed out and you cannot change anything, reenter the system registry as indicated in #3 above, and delete the registry key HomePage from the following location. Then try setting the home page again by starting IE and following the instructions in #1b:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel\HomePage
5. Using the Windows Find function search for any files ending with .hta. If found, open it/them in notepad or some other text editor and look for a contained URL which the system has been hijacked to -- write that URL down and then delete the file itself. Run a search in the system registry and remove any instances of key values of those URLs you wrote down.
6. Suggested supplemental reading:
a. "Adware, Spyware and other unwanted "malware" - and how to remove them ."
b. "StartPage Guard 2.5", a freeware 422kb download that protects a system from cyberscam by detecting and preventing unauthorized changes to the Internet browser's Start and Search pages and capable of automatically removing most known "invaders".