Periodically, I find that my normal homepage (the local roadrunner one) has been replaced by another one.
The good news is, it’s not an obscene one (it includes a link to buy Viagara, but that’s as bad as it gets). And it’s easy enough to restore the homepage I want. Still, after I restore it, the unwanted one tends to return every 6 or 7 days.
Any idea where the problem lies, and how I can destroy it?
Could be any one of severl browser hijackers. Download and run Adaware or Spybot (preferably both). Most likely one of them will nail it. Be sure to get the latest updates.
Browser hijackers, depending on your security settings, may need you to click OK on a window (which loads before the webpage you are trying to access) accepting their install, or simply changing your homepage. Sometimes this box will say something completely irrelevant and frequently people click OK without reading it. It’s usually safer to close such windows with the X in the top right, as opposed to clicking OK, especially if you aren’t sure what it’s asking you.
Don’t know if that will help or not.
Saint Anthony
A number of unscrupulous website operators will permit a piece of malware on their site which, when you access their site, downloads itself and rewrites your homepage reference. A program called CWShredder combats and gets rid of the most common group of offenders. Do a Google search for that name, or someone will be along with a link to where you can download it.
There’s a program called “Hijack This” which seems to do a good job of getting rid of these annoyances. It can get rid of a few things you might want to keep too (like the google bar that kills popups) so be careful with it.