Taking over brouser
 

How do I stop something taking over my brouser? I am on msn and everytime I open the net a new brouser appears. It is hotwebsearch.com. I go to Tools, then Options and I reset it to msn.com. The very next time I get msn.com. The time after that it reverts to hotwebsearch.com. I have changed it back to msn.com twelve times and I can't get rid of hotwebsearch.com.

You probably have some spy ware. Download SpyBot Search and Destroy that should take care of the problem.

Also if you are using IE you should switch to a better browser FireFox

If that doesn't work, the next steps should be

HiJack This and CWShredder - http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

I also found this via google:
http://www.spyany.com/program/articl...websearch.html

For prevention, I would strongly suggest the Google Toolbar, I hear that works pretty well for those who choose to use IE :)

Just saw a PC where spyware had disabled the spybot download fucntion and had removed the Google tool bar.

Bastards.

Just because it's not mentioned enough here....I think <a href="http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html">spywareblaster</a> should be installed right after the OS on all systems. If updated, it does an excellent job of preventing this stuff from ever happening.