Windows Forum
by araxis
Internet Explorer? I am assuming so. Its possible this could be spyware related..Try this first.
Go here http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
download that.
Once installed follow the instructions when setting up the program.Make sure to run the update s.Afterwards run the spyware program to look for malicious files within Explorer 6/Registry.
A quick fix is to at the sametime within Windows XP is hit ctrl-ALT-DELETE you will see a window pop up. At the top of that window look for processes click that.Now look through this foreign stuff for the name iexplore.exe right click it ---->END PROCESS..You are basically forcing IE Explorer to close whether it wants to or not.
Last,goto update.windows.com & tick everything you see saying security hazard ,download,install.No worries it will guide you through the process of what to do & what you are doing.
Good Luck & Happy New Year!
by davidonq
I'm having the same problem on a clients computer and can not
find the cause. She has a Presario 700 Laptop running Windows
XP Home edition. Shortly after boot, a search window appears
"Search Companion" with nothing listed inside the main viewing
area. I am not able to access anything in the left hand payne
and the entire window refuses to close. If you try to click it
closed, several more populate the screen. Even if I use Task
Manger to close down the process, it simply starts up again. I
didn't see a mention in the previous post, but I also noticed that
all the icons flicker in and out of existence for a time. I have ran
Norton Antivirus, WinDoctor, Ad-Aware SE+, Spybot, Search &
Destroy, Spyware Blaster, PC Rescue, Windows Update and I
lastly ran Quick Restore from the Compaq CD's to reformat the
drive. It came right back. I have tried selective startup to
disable one, some and all of the Startup Items respectivly
without success -- well, not true. The Search window opened
much faster and took twice as long to kill. I've also tried
deleating Internet Explorer, Windows Messenger and that God-
Awful MSN toolbar -- still no joy. The only work-around I've
noticed, is that if a password is set for the user's account at
login, the search window does not always open. It's driving me
crazy.
by jrice
by davidonq
That was my initial diagnosis, and indeed, I did find a hijacker,
six viruses and a host of malware, on the initial scans with Ad-
Aware SE Plus, Spybot Search and Destroy, and finally Norton
Antivirus. According to the scans, all of the offending programs
were removed, so I followed up by immunizing with Spyware
blaster then running Norton diskdoctor, Norton Windoctor and
PC rescue. Two minutes later, "pop" up came the now hated
search window. I finally gave up on recovering and (twice) did a
complete and unconditional reformat of the hard drive using an
old ME boot floppy to DOS: (Deleting the NTFS partition,
rebooting, creating a dos partition, rebooting, then formatting
the drive and rebooting) followed by the re-installation of
Windows XP from the Compaq restore discs, which then of
course removed the DOS partition and created an NTFS. The
incalcitrant window popped right back up. I even had the crazy
idea that the hijacker might be on the restore discs, so I loaded
XP onto a COMPAQ 5000 desktop, just to see. It was as flawless
as a Microsoft installation on a Compaq can possibly be. Could
the Hijacker survive a complete reformat and re-installation? I
know that Compaq has done strange and arcane things with
hidden partitions in the past, but I didn't think they could hide it
well enough to survive an unconditional format.
by jrice
by davidonq
Well thank you, that was my conclusion as well, but I've
reformatted with fresh installs twice and still the problem
remains. Any other ideas?
by bill
Pardon me for jumpin' in but I just solved this problem for one of my clients.
You have a corrupt Search Companion file.
To prevent this problem from occurring, make sure the Search Companion is closed before you connect to your ISP.
To fix it -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q319949
In the unlikely event that the M$ fix doesn't work (!) the registry key you need to fix is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion
Explorer
Desktop
NameSpace
{e17d4fc0-5564-11d1-83f2-00a0c90dc849}
Default Value Data is Search Results Folder
Enjoy!
by glyall
check out this site to remove spryware and others
http://www.actualresearch.com/
a very great about the spyware, dialers, adware,
trojam, and worms which file to delete and the registry line to delete
Good Luck
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