Imagine if you will, just browsing and researching away when all of a sudden a page on a site that you’ve visited before now has something added to it. No folks, I’m not talking about new content. I’m talking about your web browser now has a new toolbar!
Yep…
…yer browser’s been hijacked!
I was wondering, “Is this a new css or dhtml effect that makes your navigation look like a toolbar? Can’t be, I’ve been on the website before”. I right clicked the toolbar and noticed that it had a new menu item checked: Xupiter. Uuh? One thing I can’t stand is a another toolbar taking up valuable space. I only have 5 other small buttons other than the forward and back buttons with address bar. I don’t need a toolbar I’ll never use—especially a toolbar I didn’t ask for.
I did a Google search and Lockergnome search. The SpywareInfo website was very useful as well. It turns out that it secretly installed itself using Active-X and the “<OBJECT>” tag embedding on a webpage or pop-up… or pop-under for that matter. Oh, well. To combat this I downloaded and used Spybot S&D by PepiMK Software that handled the browser hijacker Xupiter well after a reboot. (You can find the download at various places like ZDNet or at http://security.kolla.de/). My Tempory Internet Files folder still had some bits and pieces of Xupiter that I had to take care of. Now I’ll have a look at my Registry to see if any other bits and pieces were left there.
Nothing like wasting your time and money trying to regain your browser and computer.
One Comment
I recently browsed google and yahoo for recipes, and the next time I went to google or yahoo home page for a search, I got a web page that I never visited. Now I am trying to find some help to rid this issue.
Dan