"Fastsearch" as unwanted Homepage

[impulce]

Every day when i open IE, my hopepage has become "fastsearch" or "luckysearch" or some similar thing all obviously part of the same group of websites. I dont set these, and it changes back to it every day..on all of my familys accounts. Ive ran Adaware and Spybot and tis still there...any ideas?

[Droppyale]

Have you updated the references on spybot and adaware?

[impulce]

No, how do i do that? Is there an obvious button to click?

[osprey4]

Start up Ad-aware and there is a button called "Check for updates now". If you don't have that, you need to get a newer version.

[ShadoLnk]

Start up SpyBot, look at the left menu/buttons and click the "Online" section -- then at the top of the program click "Search for Updates". Then make sure the updates are 'checked' and click "Download Updates". When it is done go ahead and restart Spybot and scan your computer.
Also, update your anti-virus software and deep scan your computer. It looks like you got one of those browser "hijackers" or something -- and they can sometimes be tricky to remove and may have a virus running along side of them.

I hope this helps....

[Bill in SD, CA]

Welcome to TechIMO!!

Home Page Setting Changes Unexpectedly, or You Cannot Change Your Home Page Setting

Bill

[impulce]

Thanks for the help everybody.

Id done as everybody said to no avail, but found a few people from another website had the same problem.

Turns out it is a new virus, which my virus scan isnt picking up despite being constantly updated, which affects IE and also adds favourites to youre list as well as flagging up a "runtime error 5" message everytime you restard PC.

I was advised to download "cwshredder" which immediately searches for IE virus's, and it deleted 3 things as well as something like 20 registry values...so if anybody else has the same problem, point them towards that

Thanks though.

[ShadoLnk]

Just to be safe - you may want to run that "cwshredder" in your computer's 'Safe Mode', along with your Anti-Virus and Adaware programs.

[tgxiii]

If you are still having problems, try using HijackThis to fix it.

[Kuasimodem]

Also make sure that you disable System Restore before doing the cleanup, as some of these nasty little buggers will hide in the System Restore files and reinstall themselves on reboot