Computer help, Address Bar Hijacked!

Factual Questions
1

Can I get some help from the more computer literate please?

A stupid asswipe advertiser has hijacked my address bar. Whenever I type an address into the bar, like www.cnn.com, the desired page comes up most of the time, but when I click on the arrow revealing the addresses listed in the address bar history, it says something like this:

www.asswipeadvertiser.com/code/code/www.cnn.com (instead of just www.cnn.com, like I typed it).

Every now and then, when I type a new address into the bar, it will divert me to the asswipeadvertiser page instead of my desired destination.

I’ve tried doing a search for files containing asswipeadvertiser, but to no avail. The “ad-aware” software also comes up with nothing.

How can I reclaim control of my address bar?

Thanks.

2

I have also tried to delete cookies, files, and history to no avail.

3

I suppose this is probably not what you are looking for but…as a last resort you could always reinstall your browser. If you are using IE, it might be a good juncture to switch over to Mozilla or another? Usually you can import all your bookmarks to make the conversion smooth. My ideas are ones you have already tried (cookies, cache and adaware) :frowning:

4

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

5

It’s probably in the registry. Try searching the registry for “asswipe”, and delete any entries you find (back-up the registry first, of course).

6

If you’ve installed any software that is doing this “hijacking” nothing will work except uninstalling the software. I recall that the Morpheus file sharing software was doing this some time ago making you go through other marketting sites to go where you wanted to go.

7

If “asswipeadvertiser” is really named “browserwise” (and perhaps if is not, Ad-Aware 5.83 would not touch it for me,
however, I loaded Spybot - Search and Destroy, and it cleaned it right up. (I’m still using Ad-Aware, but the two ad killers are better than just one of them.)

8

i have no ads and have only used on pop ups
would this work if you opened the ass…etc and then made it a target on the no add list?

9
      • You know, it might help if you actually said the name of the advertiser. Bad-mouthing companies that do objectionable things is understandable, and the name is probably is necessary to know in order to remove it.
        ~
10

SPYBOT did the trick! Thanks!

11

I know you have had your problem fixed, but another thing I like to do when in this situation is do a system restore. I have Windows XP (I believe ME has this too) and i think I have it set up to restore every night, so if I am surfing and run into something that takes over my browser, I just restore to last night and we’re all good. It’s quicker than running Ad-Aware.

Granted, I still use Ad-Aware but this is just another method I like. Might as well use it if you have it!

Glad you got your browser back, Bearflag :slight_smile: