unable to set homepage

[guest]

Could someone pls help? I don't know why I couldn't set my
homepage to the site that I often visit. Everytime I
restart the PC, the homepage will not be the on that I set
previously and instead its a XXX page. And also after I'm
online for some time, some other XXX sites will suddenly
take over the sites that I was visiting. I have run and
antivirus scan and no virus was detected. Is there any
solutions to these problems?

[Sandi - Microsoft MVP]

This advice covers three types of home page locking - hijacking (by web
sites), hijacking (by viruses) and locking (by ISPs when you install their
software, and computer manufacturers)
Hijacking
First, update to Internet Explorer 6. Most sites that try to hijack your
home page will now trigger a 'do you want to do this' warning message that
lets you stop the hijacking. The sneaky background activex downloads that
are often used by hijack sites to install spyware will also trigger a 'do
you want to do this' install window.
Some web sites try to change your home page or search engine options if you
visit them. Some that have been mentioned in the newsgroups include gohip,
sureseeker, webcombo, cybersearch and passthison.
Microsoft links to problems with the above sites are as follows:
PassThisOn.com Home Page Appears When You Start Computer [Q309313]
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q309313

Cannot Change Default Home Page Setting from Webcombo Site [Q302459]
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q302459
More general advice can be found at the next link:
Home Page Setting Changes Unexpectedly, or You Cannot Change Your Home Page
Setting
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;320159
In addition, you may discover that browser.secondpower.com is being added to
your homepage URL. This link has an Uninstaller:
http://www.secondpower.com/customer.html
Please see this link for advice on security fixes that can help prevent such
hijackings.
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm#hijackings
Also, there are some viruses that can reset your home page - so make sure
that your antivirus is completely up to date.
There is a clever little shareware programme that can help stop your home
page being changed; it seems to work well but tends to trigger when you
change your home page manually the next time that you start IE - the
programme makes it much easier to take back control of your home page
settings:
http://www.pjwalczak.com/spguard/
Locking
Some computer manufacturers and suppliers of internet access set IE to their
home page and lock this setting via the registry. Hijackers use exactly the
same trick. The locking is done using registry settings as per the
following:
Home Page Setting Changes Unexpectedly, or You Cannot Change Your Home Page
Setting (Q320159)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q320159
Specific registry settings affected are:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control
Panel] - DWORD "HomePage"=dword:00000001 (grays out the whole section)
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
- DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Restrictions] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001

--
_______________________________________
Sandi - Microsoft MVP since 1999 (IE/OE)
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer

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