I have 2 annoying problems with my browser right now and I have no idea how to fix them. I am using IE 6.0

The first one and the most annoying is that some kind of link always reinstall itself as the launch of the program. I always set my settings back to a blank page but everytime I restart my computer, the first time I open IE it links me back to some kind of a weird search engine. I roughly know what the problem is; there must be a line in the registry which been written there when someone on this computer (family computer) was surfing on a unsecure web page. The problem is that I don't really know how to fix it, and that's the reason of this post.

The second problem is the scanner. For some very obscure reasons, the scanner suddently refused to work. My step mother, who knows next to nothing to computer, unistalled it. No problem so far, but then we tryied to download the whole thing back from the microtek site. Meanwhile, because of the first incident, I installed a firewall to prevent that something as annoying happen again and since then I can't download the last parts of the program. Since I know next to nothing about FTP sites, I was wondering if someone had an idea of what the problem might be.

Oh boy! I get to answer the first part of the question before anybody else does.

The answer: stop using IE.

It really doesn't matter what alternative you pick. If your confortable with where all the settings are on IE, and you don't want to learn a lot of new things, Mozilla FireFox tries to parallel IE in structure.

I know it sounds cliche, but being serious, IE is horrible. Once in a while a site is broken, so I am forced to use IE, as I don't feel like downloading more browsers. After using the site, I forget about what I am browsing with, and continue on. I am reminded when I go to the next site, because I just get assulted with stuff. Spyware installs itself, GAIN, and other things try to install. Lots of popups. I set the strict security options for it, but this stuff still gets in there. Browsing is a much more pleasurable experience without it.

As for the second problem, shouldn't you have the drivers on disk? Either way, if you want to boost your security, stop using IE, and maybe buy a router with NAT if you use ethernet.

Unfortunatly, I don't really have much choice. I didn't even really got to voice an oppinion on how this computer had to be equipped with. This leave me with a very fast computer sporting Windows XP (bleh) and only recovery disks instead of the real thing.

At least I didn't pay for it...

I been quite successful to stop all the "stuff" so far, and it's the first time I run into something I can't solve myself. I fully agree tough that IE really allow virtually anything to pass without your knowledge...

Let's see: you are able to install a firewall, but can't install a proper browser? That's strange. As for the second problem, are you trying to download that file via browser? If so, try an FTP client. I heard Windows comes with a command line client by default. If that doesn't help, why not just turn off this firewall off again for the time of the download, since that's what you seem to suspect causing the problem.

To get rid of your spyware, why don't you install search and destroy or another of the spyware killers. I think there was a thread on this on the forums.

For FTP, the commanline tool does exist but it's not very handy when you're not a commanline lover so I would recommend SmartFtp (I think you can guess the url but if not www.smartftp.com)

Since you installed a firewall, you can not ftp, you are most probalby stopping one of the ports that are needed for ftp (you can test this by turning off the firewall and try to ftp again).

And just on a sidenote - people 'who know next to nothing to computer' probably shouldn't use them with root privileges. Helps keeping drivers intact

Edited by Mr Creosote at 14:19 on February, 29th 2004

First problem:

Method 1: New browser.

Method 2: Launch Regedit (or whatever it's called in XP), go to the search and enter the exact URL of the website you are redirected to. Then edit the entry that contains the URL to "about:blank" or if it's an entry that's not needed elsewhere, delete it.

Method 3: Get a software that can edit the drivers and software etc. that are loaded while the OS is booting. Then disable everything that you don't need.

I'll try using regedit and I'm currently downloading smartftp. I'll come back with updates later.

Alright, I fixed one of my two problems; the scanner is now fully operational. I wasn't too hard, I just needed the files.

I still have no luck with the first problem tough. I searched the registry and found several entries. I first tryied to delete them all but it doesn't work. My second try is to replace them all with About:blank. I'll see if it work, but I don't think it will do it. There is probably another line somewhere which add those at startup, and since I don't really know what I'm searching, it's almost impossible to find...

It's pretty dangerous to delete them all. You have to be sure that the entries aren't in use by other software or the OS.



...and therefore it must not be loaded while booting.