about: Blank???

[war59312]

I would not use the POS factory crap or the Dell CD. They put so much crap on there that should never be on your PC in the first place.

So I would use a retail copy of Windows XP Pro. or home with sp2.

[PCTech]

alright dude, I think we are on the right track to fixing this thing, I will post the link I sent to dudelive in the morning, I personally want to experience the about:blank problem! I have nothing better to do than to give me brain a workout with this! So please can someone PM me or give me a link to find the about:blank virus? I just want to try to get rid of it so I can post a solution. Also I think it will be fun, I dont think it can beat me! can someone link me to the "baddest hijacker" of all time as referred to by

http://www.pchell.com/support/aboutblank.shtml

http://www.adwareaway.com/


~PCTech

the above sites are the ones that helped me get info about it and "remove" it, i dont know if it works or not yet though.

[lickablepig]

Hi Dudelive, Peeps, yeah I have a neighbors PC that has this too. Been messing with it for a while now. It has had this infection for 6 mos. Cannot install many proggies for instance spywareblaster 3.2 and the like. Popups claims the file is corrupted, hard drive is currupted blah,blah, blah.

This thing has a life of it's own now...
Advice from pchell was good... Managed to delete the hiding changing .dll using the recovery console.

The highjacker puts sites in ur Security safe site list... after removing them they reappear. I finally succeeded with that part.

But when i finally was able to install a good AV, Nod32 found 27 trojans, then using spyware sweeper it found a couple thousand reg traces, /instances.

It was fun in the beginning PCTech. I thought like you... bring it on!
but after wrestling with it for a while it's not fun anymore...

Glad it is not my box... WORD!

@PCTECH If you go to the free pr0n sites i'm ure you'll pick it up. Install some search toolbars from the popups that appear go click crazy... You'll get it.

That's how it starts with the hijacker then da trojans are downloaded then the virrii. Nice bunch of programmers.

I agree it's easy enuff to remove if you catch it in time, this particular system, a P4 compaq has had it for 6 months, it was running free in the background.

It uses popups that appear to want to help you,the n00b would definately click themselves to a worsened state. It certainly is a challenge being on the system for so long untouched.

My neighbors bro-inlaw tried to fix it remotely using something like admin2 or whatever but made it worse imo. Looks like he went into msconfig and unchecked about 50 startups that shouldn't be there then straight up deleted the associated dirs. But left the reg entries. Big mess.

System Restore must be turned off when fighting this and not turned back on til clean... Found a slew of crap in restore area the sys volume dirs on this rig.

Don't mean to hijack convo <pun> sorry to hear about ur Boss's situation Dudelive. Hope u get it sorted. I'll post whatever i can that helps with this.

Seems like a lot of stuff is in going on in -> Documents and Settings -> user folder -> application data -> Java blah, blah, blah. Wish i could flatten this hard drive and put on XPPro... Has XP Home via Compaq image with a recovery partition, but it's junk like war says, should never be put on in the first place... They have so many little things to backup...
This is being done pro bono . They are going away for a week and left me the pc to play with... well that's my about: Blank story...
lates, jiz

Dudelive good luck with the reinstall, hope it goes smooth for you.

[PCTech]

I'm at work and I figured what the heck I got just time to kill after I get home from the hospital and it would be a fun adventure for me to try! BRING IT ON, was my attitude, I'm looking hard for it! to bad there isn't a "site" like www.aboutblankviriihere.com or something that will give it to me so i can experiment with it and beat it to a bloody pulp and help others after I get really good at fixing it!

~PCT

[Dudelive]

@ lickablepig The way you desrcibed your situtation is almost the exact same as mine is. It seems as for some reason the about:blank also calls for trojans to be installed as well. If this was not an important work computer I would reinstall everything after completely zeroing the hard drive. So as of now it all works as long as you NEVER click on IE. I have been working on it about 15 - 20 minutes a day, in between it being used and THAT is TOUGH.

ATTENTION!! THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED BY ME AT ALL
\/
@ PCTech I admire your attitude but just do yourself a favor and I mean a BIG favor, put it on a laptop or a computer where it really won't matter and then have fun and help educate others.
Just keep in mind as lickablepig referred to, this is not a nice SINGLE file if left alone. Two weeks of it being there and you leaving it alone with scanners turned off (which I DON'T recommend) will fix you right up. Just treat your surfing as though you knew nothing at all about the web and click away.

Thanks for all the help on this, as this is something that lots of others may gain help from, like as "war59312" stated NOT to use the original cd and "tubebouy" I think about how to fix this when it first happens which is the key to repairing this and "lickablepig" actually made me feel better because of the been there, done that.

Thanks
Dudelive