Last night I was connected using Firefox, running under XP SP2, with the firewall done up tighter than a fish's orifice.
Decided to do an update, so I selected the Windows Update option under the XP Security manager.
Up popped a slightly out-of focus error page from saying that it couldn't install any updates unless I allowed Active X Controls to run on my computer. The word "computer" appeared to be a link; blue text, underlined. So I clicked it!
I know, I know, I KNOW!
Up came the dreaded search page of our old pal About.Blank
Disconnect, disable System Restore, run HJT and there were the familiar symptoms:
Files called ffxzt.dll/dat/exe all over C:\Windows\System and \System32.
Home Page changed to "about.blank"
Got rid of those, then ran About:Buster (Thrice!) and it removed 7 more random entries, as well as clearing out the HSE, SE and SV keys.
Logged back on - all clear, no harm done - WHEW!!
When, Oh When is someone going to grass up the author of About.Blank, so we can go round his/her house and have a profound "talk" with them about their actions?
TBL: Get a pencil and some paper, and write this down 50 times:
Never, Ever click on a link in a blurry-looking page, especially if that page is a pop-up.
Chris
Varium et mutabile semper Excel
Decided to do an update, so I selected the Windows Update option under the XP Security manager.
Up popped a slightly out-of focus error page from saying that it couldn't install any updates unless I allowed Active X Controls to run on my computer. The word "computer" appeared to be a link; blue text, underlined. So I clicked it!
I know, I know, I KNOW!
Up came the dreaded search page of our old pal About.Blank
Disconnect, disable System Restore, run HJT and there were the familiar symptoms:
Files called ffxzt.dll/dat/exe all over C:\Windows\System and \System32.
Home Page changed to "about.blank"
Got rid of those, then ran About:Buster (Thrice!) and it removed 7 more random entries, as well as clearing out the HSE, SE and SV keys.
Logged back on - all clear, no harm done - WHEW!!
When, Oh When is someone going to grass up the author of About.Blank, so we can go round his/her house and have a profound "talk" with them about their actions?
TBL: Get a pencil and some paper, and write this down 50 times:
Never, Ever click on a link in a blurry-looking page, especially if that page is a pop-up.
Chris
Varium et mutabile semper Excel