# Help Me!....My hopepage keeps changing! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595 "2004-03-26T17:21:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SnowDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@SnowDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnowDog)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/1 "2004-03-26T17:21:37Z")
Hey everyone… I’m really getting angry with whatever is causing this. Maybe you’ve had this happen before, and you can tell me where to look to rid myself of this pox. Every time I re start my computer, the homepage changes itself to a “ **Home Search Page’** ”. Also, every time my computer can not find a page, the “ **Home Search** ” comes up with the “ **Page Not Found** ” message. Any idea? Just as an aside, I wanted to ask about popup blocking software. Does it work? Which do you reccomend? Thanks Dopers! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/2 "2004-03-26T17:30:21Z")
Alright: Download AdAware and Spybot. Run them. If it’s Cool Web Search that keeps popping up for you, download CWShredder as well (although AdAware and Spybot might destroy those these days.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/3 "2004-03-26T17:32:29Z")
Oh, and I almost forgot, get yourself “Hijack This!” as well. This finds the offending homepage hijack code and destroys it. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/4 "2004-03-26T17:32:52Z")
Sounds like you have the same thing I did: [IE Plugin](http://www.ieplugin.com) from Intelligent Explorer. Get [Ad-Aware](http://download.com.com/3000-2094-10045910.html?legacy=cnet) and [Spybot](http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10194058.html?tag=lst-0-1) to deal with that problem. Always make sure you have a current version by having the software check for updates when you first install and at least once a week thereafter. As for a popup blocker, I like [Free Surfer](http://www.kolumbus.fi/eero.muhonen/FS/Support.htm). You’ll still get crap asking for permission to install but I doubt there’s anything that can block those. Best way to deal with those is to close 'em. I always try to click “no” but I wasn’t paying attention one time and ended up with that IE Plugin POS. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/5 "2004-03-26T17:35:51Z")
BTW: you should be able to use the Internet Options on the Control Panel to fix your homepage. ---
**Author:** ![Chimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@Chimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimpy)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/6 "2004-03-26T17:59:25Z")
Someone suggested a spyware sticky at the top of GQ and i agree. **Jeff Olsen** depending on whats causing it, changing the homepage in Internet Options may not work. Also anyone who’s fed up of this sort of thing might want to consider Firefox. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/7 "2004-03-26T18:02:01Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Oh, and I almost forgot, get yourself “Hijack This!” as well. This finds the offending homepage hijack code and destroys it. While Hijackthis is a great tool for this, it should only be used by experts. You need to know how to read the log it creates in order to know what to delete and that does take a bit of practice. To get an analysis, go to [http://forums.spywareinfo.com](http://forums.spywareinfo.com) and post the log. Don’t delete anything unless someone tells you it’s OK to delete. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/8 "2004-03-26T22:21:33Z")
> [@BigDaiv](#): > > **Jeff Olsen** depending on whats causing it, changing the homepage in Internet Options may not work. Well, yeah, that’s why I said “…should be able to…” I had no problem getting rid of my search page that way. That reminds me, I bet the “page not found” with the home search tacked on is physically on **SnowDog** ’s hard drive. If so, it can safely be deleted ---
**Author:** ![gyt\_fx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@gyt\_fx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gyt_fx)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/9 "2004-03-26T22:55:18Z")
Pop-up blockers work great. However, many links open in separate windows, so you have to either manually turn off pop-up blocking before clicking link, or simply press ctrl before clicking link (Atleats on my pop-up blocker). Go to [www.download.com](http://www.download.com) and type in Pop up stopper and look for ‘Pop-up Stopper Free Edition.’ Or go here [Pop-up stopper](http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=pop+up+stopper&tg=dl-2001) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/10 "2004-03-26T23:05:20Z")
I’ve found I run into this trouble, and then have to run Adaware, after trying to surf to a site of which I “think I know the URL”. For example, let’s say you want to go to the website of the First Podunk Bank. You might be tempted to assume their URL is [www.firstpodunkbank.com](http://www.firstpodunkbank.com), and type that into the address bar. Do NOT do so, because unsuccessful surfs like that are what let the hijackers in. Instead, go through Google or some other search engine to find the real URL. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/11 "2004-03-27T01:17:57Z")
One more vote here for running BOTH Spybot and Adaware–they each catch things that the other one doesn’t. Also, I find that installing the Google Toolbar gives me a nifty popup blocker that serves my average purposes. It tucks itself in very nicely right under the normal Internet Explorer toolbar/address bar, doesn’t take up that much extra space. [http://toolbar.google.com/](http://toolbar.google.com/) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-my-hopepage-keeps-changing/236595/12 "2004-03-27T01:38:40Z")
In addition to the things mentioned, you should also use [Spyware Blaster](http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html), which keeps many forms of Spyware from ever being installed. Also, an important tool to add to your antispyware toolkit is [CWShredder](http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html). Keep it in reserve if you get a browser hijack. Most likely, it’s a variant of CoolWebSearch, which Ad-Aware and Spybot can’t keep up with.