Everytime I open up Internet Explorer, my desired homepage (Cnn.com) does not load. Instead, I am sent to one of a number of pseudo search engine sites that advertise viagra, on line gambling, and pornography. No matter how much I reset my homepage, it always happens.
Why is this happening to me?
More importantly, how can I fix this on my computer?
You probably have spyware installed on your computer. Get Adaware 6.0 (free version), run it, and delete all it finds. Another good program is Spybot search & destroy, also free. Run them periodically to clean out your computer.
After you are clean, reset your home page.
This problem has come up on SDMB at least a hafl-dozen times in the last week. For more info, try searching for threads with logical keywords.
Everytime I open up Internet Explorer, my desired homepage (Cnn.com) does not load. Instead, I am sent to one of a number of pseudo search engine sites that advertise viagra, on line gambling, and pornography. No matter how much I reset my homepage, it always happens.
Why is this happening to me?
More importantly, how can I fix this on my computer?
Download AdAware from here
Lavasoft
Then HijackThis from here
HijackThis
Use each one, and use the forums of each to learn more or get support for them if needed.
Then don’t install any more ‘free’ software, search bars, P2P applications, or other such things advertised in popups.
go to “tools” on the top of your ie browser
choose internet options
under the general tab there should be a thingy for “home page” and type cnn.com into it and select OK
that should fix it : )
ummm, I mean apply THEN ok
also you could try reinstalling ie on your computer?
other than that hmmmmm…??
LVgeogeek, that’s not going to do any good at all. It’s clear that Broodha has picked up some adware/scumware on his PC, so no matter how many times he resets his homepage, the scumware is going to hijack it.
I’ll leave it to someone else to come up with the proper solution.
(Oh, and Broodha, posting the same thing in two different forums is called “cross-posting,” and isn’t allowed on these boards.)
Have you run a spyware program to see if it picks up something?
Here’s two good ones to try, I run both once a week on all my machines, and my advice is, it’s a good idea for you to do the same. I’ve gotten myself into the habit of running the scans when I do my weekly defrag, which makes it alot easier to remember.
These will both detect and remove spyware on your computer, which, even if it doesn’t fix the problem you’re having, will certainly net you better protection in the future provided you run the scan periodically, as well as update it’s database before each time you run it (there’s usually an option in the user interface to do it automatically).
I mis read it the first time, that is why I suggsted reinstalling ie, but I didnt consider a bug program at first… my mistake.
Adaware is a good program to remove stuff from your computer that you dont want there.
Again my apologies for my error in reading.
Apologies for the cross posting. I thought I may have posted in the wrong forum. Won’t happen again.
thanks for the advice. I’ll give it a try.
No big deal. I just thought I’d warn you before one of our beloved Nazi moderators comes along and orders you to report to the dungeon for some attitude adjustment. 
Ditto to the above and afterwards, set your internet security to at least medium high to prevent “stealth” downloads of the same things again.
For future reference, it’s best to e-mail a moderator and ask to have the thread moved than to re-start it in another forum.
Since both threads have responses, I’ll merge this one into the GQ thread.
bibliopahge
moderator GQ
Alright guys. Now…
I’ve run AdAware as well as Spybot Search and Destroy. Each says, “Congratulations!!..” blah blah blah.
I’ve checked Add/Remove and run regedit. A slew of other problems (reset favorites, etc) were corrected, but…
I’ve got the same home page deal as Broodha.
At the risk of offending every one - HELP! (please)
Blassie
I posted the same problem in this thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=225989
and Tusculan’s answer was the one that worked. And you’re right, adaware and spybot don’t solve this problem.