Ok, how do you get rid of the “about blank” spyware. Whenever I try to access my yahoo mail, that’s what I get. I’ve ran a few spyware blockers from download.com but I still have it. I messed with the security settings and had it working for a couple days, but it’s back. Any suggestions?
You can post the HijackThis log here for people to review.
A good place to start: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=260053
If I’m not mistaken, the About:Blank Hijacker is a variant of CoolWebSearch, which can be pretty difficult to remove. I believe the author of CWShredder, who wrote the program to combat CWS, actually gave up the fight because of too many variants.
Anyway, start with the advice on the link.
About Blank is about the hardest bit of spyware to remove. There was a time when it was next to impossible (even with hijackthis), but there are a few tools now.
AboutBuster is the preferred tool for cleanup these days. There’s a good chance it’ll take care of things.
If not, the latest version of Hijackthis (1.98.2) will detect and clean it, but don’t do it yourself – post the log on a spyware site for instructions (I recommend www.spywareinfo.com, whose advisors go through a rigorous training before being allowed to give advice).
In theory, the latest version of Ad-Aware SE will also clean it, but I’ve heard that may not work.
CWShredder?
What, exactly, is the About: Blank spyware? What does it do?
It uses a hidden .dll file that cannot be found with a windows search. It also changes its name every time you reboot. Just when you think you have cleaned it off, it reinstalls itself and you are back to square one, with the Browser Hijacker from Hell (cue the* Firefox Chorus*).
I mean what does it do? How does it effect your computer?
When I first started using my girlfriend’s computer she had some spyware that sent her to an ad page when she would normally get a 404. Is this how About:Blank spyware operates?
Your home page goes directly to a page called “about:blank” which is a front for some crappy search stuff. Pretty much every page you try going to or search that you try running will stand a chance of being redirected. You’ll also start getting popup ads on your PC that purport to show that your computer is infected with parasites (there’s a shock, since that’s what the damn thing is) and offering a tool to remove it…for a price.
I was just working on a machine with about:blank on it and “something” (might have been another parasite but I think I got rid of the rest of 'em) was breaking Symantec a/v, Adaware and Spybot.
I deal with this stuff for a living and about:blank is about the worst of the lot. I’m in a corporate environment with standardized images, roaming profiles and no local storage of files so it’s actually faster and simpler to just reimage the entire PC rather than trying to clean most parasites off. Hideous waste of everybody’s time and not much of a solution for the home user.
That being said, I will repeat the standard mantra whenever somebody asks about parasites:
“Use a different browser”
I use both Opera (www.opera.com) and Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.org). They are both quite good (I prefer Opera, myself) and you’ll get virtually no parasites, plus you have one-click control over stuff like popups.
Good luck!