Problem! Seems incurable! Help!

[Xade]

Hey, I'm really in need of some help here. I've got a bitch of a problem that nobody AT ALL seems to be able to assist with, either via the internet, phone, or anything....

It's like this: I was browsing the internet when all of a sudden an ActiveX or something attempted to switch my homepage. It was succesful but I disconnected before it could screw my registery etc.

Anyway, I changed back to google.com and thought that was that. However, I noticed that I'd also been given a different, rock-hard problem to solve. I am now unable to use the 'Search' option on my start menu. It simply freezes when clicked, for about 20 seconds, then goes back to normal without the 'Search' box ever appearing. As well as this, I now can't open new windows within Internet Explorer (either by holding the shift key or whatever), or access cached files on google without my PC freezing for about 30 seconds.

Please help here, I've tried everything. It thought it had something to do with msblaster, but I haven't got that on my PC :-(. It happens both when I'm on the internet and when I'm disconnected. I'm using Windows XP Home, ZoneAlarm and IE6.

 

[Trotterwatch]

First things first, you've scanned for Spyware yes?
You've tried downloading an alternative browser, checked for any processes running that shouldn't be etc

 

[Xade]

Yeah, used latest Ad-aware reference and scanned through, removed one or two trackers but that was it; no difference. Every process that's running was there before all this nonsense. Haven't tried an alternate browser yet, although that wouldn't sort the 'Search' problem anyway.

I really don't want to do a XP Repair install...

 

[jollyrancher]

Once that happened to me and I tried ad-aware and that didn't fix it, so I then tried CWShredder http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip and it fixed it. Anyway, later on I got so sick of IE's terrible security holes in ActiveX that I switched by browser to Opera and it's a huge improvement in every way... don't know how I ever lived without mouse gestures and some of the other Opera features. Mozilla Firebird is also much better than IE.

 

[Xade]

Yearghhhhhh! Mr. Rancher I owe you some serious thanks, damn it! I hadn't heard of that program at all, and I've tried stacks of different ones.

It sounds corny but it's really, really appreciated that there are communities like this willing to help people out.

Incidentally, the issue in question that was removed was to do with SVCinit, a nasty problem that, according to some (and my own experience!) is very damned hard to sort out without that tool. And as for a new browser, I'm very seriously considering it. There are many less attacks aimed at other browsers than IE.

Just a warning to you all, watch what you're browsing. Even firewalls fail against some of these ActiveX bitches. I'm considering getting a hardware router now.

Thanks again, and I won't forget it. Any favour you're wanting rancher and I'm there (within reason, clearly).

 

[blight]

afaik, hardware routers suck!

just my 2 cents

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

I don't like to tell you this, repair installs are sloppy, thus if you are required to
fix your Windows XP, back up your application installer files to a secondary HDD,
reformat the primary master HDD and reinstall Windows XP.

I have a major collection of application and documentation files stored on a secondary HDD, thus if I'm required to reinstall Windows, don't require any CDs,
including the Windows XP CD not being required to reinstall Windows XP.


BTW, you probably will feel majorly better in the long run if you do reinstall everything you use and defragment afterwards.

Remember, just because Windows is freshly installed, it don't mean your HDD data
isn't fragmented. This is because the Windows installation process scatters data around on the HDD.

 

[Xade]

My friend has a hardware router and it's a no B.S. solution to just about any attack a hacker launches, because it has its' own seperate I.P. address, meaning that the hacker can only see the router and not the PCs behind it without a fair bit of work.

And as for the reinstall... I don't need to do that now courtesy of jollyrancher, but I'll keep in mind what you're saying RJ. I don't have a secondary hard disk, but I guess I could partition ten gigs or so. I'm using NTFS though; is that going to change things at all or not?

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

NTFS probably will cause you to loose access to the Windows XP setup program
under DOS, which is required for the clean Windows XP installation method I use
and approve. Before trying the above Windows XP installation method, make sure where the \I386 folder is stored is a FAT32 partition.

 

[Zilla]

My friend has a hardware router and it's a no B.S. solution to just about any attack a hacker launches, because it has its' own seperate I.P. address, meaning that the hacker can only see the router and not the PCs behind it without a fair bit of work.

NAT.