# Help! My Homepage has been hijacked! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2004, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-homepage-has-been-hijacked/222460 "2004-01-03T11:25:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kmg365](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ec9cab/32.png) [@kmg365](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kmg365)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2004, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-homepage-has-been-hijacked/222460/1 "2004-01-03T11:25:03Z")
No matter how many times I keep on setting my homepage in my IE6 browser control by in Internet Options, my Homepage keeps on going to this ungodly search engine with a strange URL like this: res://mshp.dll/index.html#22776 Any ideas how I can overcome this? ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2004, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-homepage-has-been-hijacked/222460/2 "2004-01-03T11:43:47Z")
Search google for AdAware, and Spybot Search and Destroy. Install and run both. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2004, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-homepage-has-been-hijacked/222460/3 "2004-01-03T11:46:25Z")
[Spybot](http://greyarchive.greyarchive.org/archive22.htm), [Adaware](http://www.lavasoftusa.com/) ---
**Author:** ![KenGr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecc23a/32.png) [@KenGr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KenGr)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2004, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-homepage-has-been-hijacked/222460/4 "2004-01-03T11:46:29Z")
You have been hijacked and infected. Feels really slimy doesn’t it? You need to run up to date antivirus scans as well as spyware tools like Adaware and Spybot. Here are instructions that should help you: [http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si\_virus&message.id=1825](http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_virus&message.id=1825) ---
**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:** [January 3, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-homepage-has-been-hijacked/222460/5 "2004-01-03T14:43:03Z")
One more vote here for Spybot, which rocks. It’s free, and it really works, especially for getting rid of Evil HomePages which install themselves in your computer. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2004, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-homepage-has-been-hijacked/222460/6 "2004-01-03T15:59:07Z")
No - use BOTH programs. I can advise from long experience on several different computers, including those of friends and colleagues that I’ve helped troubleshoot, neither AdAware or SpyBot is invincible. Both often pick up nasties that the other one has missed. The last example of this was AdAware - latest reference file etc - missing some Gator stuff. ---
**Author:** ![kmg365](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ec9cab/32.png) [@kmg365](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kmg365)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2004, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-homepage-has-been-hijacked/222460/7 "2004-01-03T16:01:21Z")
Thanks everyone! It worked! By downloading the three programs below, I was able to get rid of that mofo spyware worm – which a virus scan won’t detect btw. As per your suggestions, I first went to [this](http://www.tek-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/lev2/67/lev3/74/pid/608/qid/738925) page, then dowloaded and extracted the following [free shareware](http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads.php?cat=sp#det) in this order: 1. [cwshredder](http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads.php?cat=sp#det) 2. [Spybot 1.2](http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10122137.html?part=104443&subj=dlpage&tag=button) 3. [Ad-aware](http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button) Spybot and Ad-aware must be extracted after it is downloaded. Thanks everyone for the excellent tips and good luck to all with the same problem.