Can anyone tell me why the home page on my son's PC keeps resetting to www.msn.com?

Actually, when I go to the tools/internet options/general tab the URL string is

"http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&clcid=0x0409&pver=6.0&ar=home"


How can I make it stay set to something else?

Put in the homepage that you want. You have to click apply and then click ok. If you just click ok (without clicking apply first) then it doesn't change it.

1 - Find the home page you want to use,
2 - Under "Tools", the "Internet Options", click on "Use Current"
3 - Click on "Apply", then "Ok". Your homepage should now be whatever you have it set for.

I should have elaborated further. The above solutions work fine..........until I reboot. That's when it resets to msn.

Thanks anyway.

There are several possible causes for this behavior.

1. Do you run Symantec's Internet Security utility program? This program will prevent the Home page from being reset unless you check the "Allow home page reset" option.

2. Your browser may have been "High jacked" This is a link to a site that can show you if your browser has been high jacked by some more common pest files: Browser high jack detection site Note: This does not detect all possible high jacks but if it does see a high jack, it will explain how to remove the pest.

3. There are any number of "spyware" program files that will prevent a home page reset. It is normally not reset to a standard site like MSN.com but this might be happening due to a poor job of writing the program by the spyware author (program error) Do you run "Anti-Spyware" utility software?

Note: the spelling of these 3 programs, there are some clones that use a similar name, but that are definitely bad.

Three that I highly recommend are:
Ad-Aware, Spybots and SpywareBlaster. You can download all three from my site: http://dwightblackburn.com#spyware

Just click on any of the filenames, then right-click on the file and choose "Save target as".

If you need a tutorial on running any of these, you can use the OK, Teach Me site shown on my page. Also, if necessary you can set up a remote connection with me and I can install/repair the system for you. The direction for this are available on my site.

4. There may be an error in the Web browser program. For us to provide any assistance with this, we will need to know the details of your system. See below for help in gathering the necessary information.

If none of these suggestions work, you may find the "HijackThis" utility program helpful (this program is also available on my site). This program is quite advanced, so please don't use this one without some assistance. You can post again if you believe it will be necessary to use it and we can provide additional details. We will need to know the details of your system. This page may be helpful in gathering the information: http://dwightblackburn.com/help.htm

The PC Wizard may be helpful, too...PC Wizard

Dwight

Thanks Dwight. When I get home tonight I'll visit your site.

Currently, I'm running two spyware programs, Spyware Doctor which I purchased over the web, and another called "Spyware Killer", that I purchased at Best Buy. (I can't seem to find a reference to this on through google).

I run both of them often and they always find and fix many items. But they seem to come right back.

The SpywareBlaster program mentioned above is a prevention tool. It seems to work very well...

If you play online games you will probably be seeing a lot of spyware as that is how these sites pay for themselves.

One very good fix to prevent Browser high jacks is called the "hosts' file. It tells these known problem sites that the file it is attempting to load is already on your system (even though it isn't really) and so the problem file is not loaded.

You can read more about this and download the file (free) from: Hosts file

Dwight