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What you're experiencing cound be caused by a virus or more likely it could be caused by legitimate browsers who think you
wanted them to always be the default. Lately, it's very common to be caused by unwanted software which was included
when other software you updated tricked you into installing it.
Many popular programs make extra revenue but installing unwanted toolbars or download managers. Many companies
accept payments in return for installing toolbars or other software designed to change your default home or search page.
They include a checkbox that sometimes lets you opt-out but they depend on users being in a hurry and not noticing the check box.
Even if WinPatrol restores your original choice these programs will continue to make the change until they can be removed or disabled.
These programs and toolbars will change your default start page, search page as well as the page you get when you type in
the wrong website address. This allows companies to include more advertising
in their search results which provides their main source of profits. If you notice one of your programs constantly having
updates it could be 1) they want to try and trick you into downloading one of these programs that provides advertising or 2) their programmers
are so bad they have to fix their bugs or security flaws on a regular basis.
Another potential revenue boosting trick is to change the web page you receive if you enter a typo when going to a website.
This used to be called a 404 Error and in the old days you received a mesaage just saying you made a typo. Now, the page you receive may be set
by the company who provided your computer(OEM) or from the company who provides your Internet connection.(ISP). At my house, my default page comes from
Verizon and includes a Yahoo Search bar along with many advertisements. Consider the number of typos that occur on the Internet and you can see
who valuable controlling this page can be.
If you look at the WinPatrol list of IE Helpers you may see a file called URLREDIR.DLL. This is a standard program name used to redirect your
browser when an error occurs. If you notice the page you receive when typing an error has changed it may be due to a new file in your IE Helpers.
Using WinPatrol you can select the file and click Remove and it will unregister that version of URLREDIR.DLL.
Everyone is doing it
At least once a week I receive an offer of a business opportunity. Companies want me to trick WinPatrol users into installing their
search toolbar. They tell me everyone is doing it and users now expect it. One caller said if users are stupid enough not to read the
screen they deserve it.
They tell me they'll rename it the WinPatrol Security Toolbar to make it seem like I'm offering a valuable product. At one time, the
good folks who run the
Ask.com offered me over a dollar
for every user I could trick into using Ask.com for their search tool.
START HERE
It doesn't hurt to try the simple methods first. Check the options of any browsers you have installed and
make sure only one is checked with the option "Make xxxxx my Default Browser".
Also check the option in the settings of your browser that says something like "Set which search engine is used when searching"
In the newest Internet Explorer they finally correctly have a screen which allows you to set the default program based
on the file type or protocol.
If your browsers are set correctly the next step is to look at the list of programs in the Control Applet Add/Remove or Uninstall programs. Some
unwanted programs claim they can be removed using the standard uninstall function.
If normal attempts fail follow the steps below.
Frequently, unwanted programs come with partners or in groups which are designed to protect and reactivate
each other. Even if you tell Scotty to remove and kill a Startup Program,
another partner program may replace the registry entry corrected by WinPatrol.
WinPatrol will warn you again which could drive you crazy.
If WinPatrol detects the same program repeating itself, Scotty will
try and automatically "Disable" this program so it doesn't continue to annoy you.
Look at our list of Startup Programs and instead of using Remove, try selecting
and click Disable. This should at least stop the annoying messages.
If you've reached this page you may have been infected with malware but don't
panic. Some legitimate programs now use similiar tricks. Many now make a profit by installing software you haven't asked for. WinPatrol will never tod this. If an unwanted program has been installed when you did a simple update of a legitimate program scream loudly online and make your voice heard or this product placement will continue.
Use the steps below to manually remove the annoying program. These steps
help explain how to find and
remove all the partner programs. Having WinPatrol installed before
you're attacked makes removal easier but not impossible. If the program is a legitimate
program it may work best to find the auto start option or Uninstall the program via
the Windows Control Panel, Add/Remove or Uninstall applet.
The instructions below may be easier than you think.
Just to be sure reboot in Safe Mode by pressing F8 when rebooting.
Close down or Exit all the known applications that you have running on
your computer. This will help you narrow down the offending programs.
Open the main WinPatrol tabbed interface by double-clicking on the scotty icon in the lower
right hand corner of the screen.
Or launch WinPatrol Explorer from the Windows Start button -> Programs -> WinPatrol Explorer
You can stop alert messages by right-clicking on the WinPatrol system tray icon
and selecting Exit. The system tray icon allows you to Exit the
WinPatrol monitoring component but will still allow you to use the tabbed interface to
performace the necessary clean up.
Click the
Active Tasks tab to check what programs are still listed.
Sort the Active Task list by "First Detected" column. Files that
were installed on the same day/time are most likely working together to replicate each other.
You may see multiple suspicious programs.
Some programs may appear to have randomly created filenames. That's a clue to possible mawlare.
Frequently, malicious programs will be too lazy to fake a company name or copyright information. This isn't
always true but may be an additional indicator.
WinPatrol allows you to Kill multiple tasks with one action.
Hold down the CTRL key to select several tasks at once and
click to select and highlight each suspicious task.
Adobe has been using a trick to delay one of their partner apps 10 minutes
to purposely decieve users.
Click on the Kill Task button. This will hopefully shut down
all suspicious tasks. If you accidently kill a legitimate task it won't
be deleted and it can be restarted when you reboot.
Once the programs are no longer running you should be able to remove
the unwanted programs from the Startup Programs list. If you've been able to kill all of the
partner programs the Startup, Service or IE Helper listing will not be recreated.
Once removed we recommend rebooting and use WinPatrol to verify no unwanted Startup Programs
are still around.
Click on the WinPatrol Hidden Files tab and again sort by First Detected and see if any
suspicious new files exist.
We don't recommend monitoring Hidden files because many programs create hidden
data files.
This list still may be useful in finding malious partner programs.
Take a look at IE Helpers and Scheduled Tasks to see if you see any unwanted programs.
While the Startup Program list is the most common entry point these locations have also
been known to store ways to keep programs on your computer.
If after trying to remove suspicious or dangerous programs you find it still
will not go away, right-click on the title of the program and select
"Delete File on Reboot." This action will take place the next time
you re-boot. The file will be deleted before Windows starts so it won't be able
to recreate the unwanted program.
There is no way to recover the file once it is deleted
this way so use this feature only when you are absolutely sure the file is unwanted.
If you've been successful, we recommend upgrading to WinPatrol PLUS to show your support and
give forward to others who may experience the same frustration. Having WinPatrol PLUS can prevent
repeating alerts before they start.
Upgrade to WinPatrol PLUS
One time fee! $29.95
WinPatrol is dedicated to fight new trends of legitimate companies making money tricking
you into installing software that takes control of your settings.
Your support helps continue the development of WinPatrol allowing us to tell toolbar company's
where to stick it when they offer us big bucks to install their crapware.
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