tried everything from Ad-Aware, Malwarebytes, Spybot, SuperAntiVirus Spyware, Ccleaner, Cleanup…updated to latest versions of above but did not get searches (both google/bing) to work.
First it was only happening in Chrome, Now IE has gotten it too.
Any Solution?
Whats the best Free Antivirus/antivirus removal that I can have for my old XP based laptop?
try this idea and apply it in the terms of your browsers:
1. from firefox, select : TOOLS > OPTIONS
the tab u want is "MAIN" ,
group u want is "STARTUP" ,
the line that says: WHEN FIREFOX STARTS: drop down menu u want is SHOW A BLANK PAGE.hit ok, come out, restart firefox, go to TOOLS > OPTIONS (again) and verify that now it shows SHOW A BLANK PAGE.
2. VIEW > TOOLBAR > should only have three choices: NAVIGATION TOOLBAR, BOOKMARK TOOLBAR and (with a divider) CUSTOMIZE.
check these two points, close ALL firefox windows/tabs and restart firefox, repeat your browsing practices and report any changes/noticing here
try this as well, (more like windows related step)
:-) lets try few BASIC , te thori simple tekneeks
start > run > msconfig [enter]
go into "STARTUP" , take everything and uncheck it. hit apply, ok button becomes "close" , press that. "SYSTEM CONFIGURATION" menu that asks for restart/exit without restart, press restart.
as system restarts, press F8 repeatedly after memory check and starting procedure is done and any "hard drive" spinning/reading starts. in Windows startup, select SAFE MODE.
at this point its a good idea to run CCleaner, and delete/clean EVERYTHING including temp files, prefetch data, windows temp files, recycle bin, user data, temporay internet files, or whatever CCleaner can delete.
try this (complicated sounding, yet simple) procedure and report
Your computer is heavily infected. Format the hard drive (after backing up the data ofcourse) and reinstall Windows.
NEVER trust your OS once its been infected.
I'm afraid Tofi might be right... I got hit by similar malware which also disabled my antivirus and antimalware apps.
I had to save my data and do a clean install. I was a hassle, but after engaging a few security experts online, they couldn't resolve the issue with existing tools.
@As Tofi pointed out this could be a seriosu infection, I have a hunch that the hosts and lmhosts files are modified, so when ever the user type bing or google, it gets routed to another IP/server.