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With all due respect to essexboy, I’m of the opinion that running aswMBR.exe to address a browser hijacker is inappropriate in this particular case. That executable is designed to remove a TDL4 infection of the Master Boot Record while a browser hijacker merely influences the way your browser behaves, not the actual operating system.
I would recommend you download Firefox 7.0.1 from http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fx/ and use that as your browser because it’s very easy to fix a browser hijack. If you’re using it already, do the following.
- In the location bar where you normally type in a web address, type about:config and hit Enter.
- If you see a window which says “This might void your warranty!”, click the button which says “I’ll be careful, I promise” so you can continue with the next step.
- In the filter at the top, type: keyword.URL to filter out just that setting.
- Double click it and remove whatever’s in there and replace it with http://www.google.com/search?q= and then click OK.
- Close the tab.
You can right click the link to google to add in about:config and choose “Copy Link Location” to copy it to the Windows clipboard. Then right click the keyword.URL field and choose “Paste” to paste it in there. Saves you having to type the whole thing.
To reset your home page, do the following.
- Go to the site you want to set as your home page.
- Click the orange Firefox button and go to Options | Options | General.
- Make sure it says Show My Home page in the first dropdown menu.
- Click the button called Use Current Pages to set the home page to the one you have on the screen and then click OK.
Browser hijackers tend to get installed when the user installs some free utility or other which includes the hijacker. I’ve uploaded a screenshot for you which illustrates how Ask.com takes over your search sessions if you don’t remove the checkmark before clicking “Next”.