'default Home page' prefs in IE keep getting overruled by spammers

[telecandy]

My 'default Home page' settings in IE have - without my permission - been set to 'C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SWPortal.html'. This is the homepage of some portal stored locally in my windows/systems directory (again without my permission). I don't know yet how this could have happened - but hey - they managed to do it.
Whenever I change my 'default home page' prefs in Explorer, it works for one session, but after restarting Windows
my prefs are overruled again. Of course deleting the locally stored files did no good. I reinstalled IE5, then installed IE6. Nothing changed. I betcha nothing will change when I re-install Windows 98.

So the Q is: Anyone know what to do? Annyone know how this was done? How can I protect myself from it?

Thanks.

 

[smitee]

check FAQ

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?spid=608&sfid=1148&CFID=28914575&CFTOKEN=96597551

 

[telecandy]

Thanks smitee. I had no idea this was such a common problem.

The problem in my case was an executable called swcaller2.exe which kept resetting my default homepage. I noticed an icon for this program in my system tray, but I couldn't find it in Program Files > StartUp.
I assume swcaller2.exe was installed on my hard drive the moment I visited this web site.
I found an entry in HKEY_USERS>.DEFAULT>Software which I deleted. Hope I did the right thing. The problem's gone so
I'm happy.

tnx

 

[smitee]

Good FAQ reghakr..