can anyone help me?

[buxxxom]

This may not be the place to ask, but can anyone provide advice on how to change a home page. My hard drive recently crashed and had to be replaced. I have had the OS (Win XP) reinstalled, everything is fine, but with 4 user accounts on this computer, only one will accept anything other than MSN for a homepage. I'm not sure why only one will accept the changes, and have tried everything I can think of. Any help out there?

 

[bobwhitecrow]

Internet Options

In windows internet explorer, go to 'TOOLS' and select 'Internet Options'. Then change the home page address.

 

[buxxxom]

I've done that already, about 20 times, for each user other than myself. It is just not accepting any changes!

 

[Ravin the Poet]

You have a virus then. Trust me, I have had this happen before and its a pain in the ass. Just scan the compete and delete it and you won't have a problem.

 

[bobwhitecrow]

Yes

You have a virus then. Trust me, I have had this happen before and its a pain in the ass. Just scan the compete and delete it and you won't have a problem.

That is what it sound like to me, as well. You need a virus scanner. I believe there is one called AVG that has a free downloadable version.

 

[Weird Harold]

I've done that already, about 20 times, for each user other than myself. It is just not accepting any changes!

Check to see if you're running a program like Freesurfer that locks your homepage(s) -- If you're not, you need a program like adaware or spybot search and destroy to find the homepage stealer that has invaded your system. It's probably NOT a virus and AVG, PC-Cillin, Norton AV, and the like won't necessarily find it.

I'm not all that familiar with Win XP, but the built-in firewall might be able to lock the home page and you would need to change it through the firewall settings if it can.

 

[RagingWillard]

That or it could be something as simple as only the administrator can change the homepage.

 

[buxxxom]

still trying

It's not a virus. I just got the hard drive back from the Geek Squad (it had to be replaced) and they reinstalled Norton AV on it there on a closed system. I ran it anyway, just to be sure, and it came up clean. The also installed a spyware/adware program (do any of us really want anyone else to know what we surf on the net?) and I think that is blocking my attempts to change the home page. It's Webroot Spy Sweeper. I am thinking of uninstalling it to see if that works. What do you all think?

 

[SweetErika]

It's not a virus. I just got the hard drive back from the Geek Squad (it had to be replaced) and they reinstalled Norton AV on it there on a closed system. I ran it anyway, just to be sure, and it came up clean. The also installed a spyware/adware program (do any of us really want anyone else to know what we surf on the net?) and I think that is blocking my attempts to change the home page. It's Webroot Spy Sweeper. I am thinking of uninstalling it to see if that works. What do you all think?

It looks like there might be an option in Spy Sweeper to lock your homepage so spy/malware can't change it.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~help/security/spysweeper.html and scroll down to the FAQs where there are instructions for changing your homepage.

 

[5pintshefound]

It's not a virus. I just got the hard drive back from the Geek Squad (it had to be replaced) and they reinstalled Norton AV on it there on a closed system. I ran it anyway, just to be sure, and it came up clean. The also installed a spyware/adware program (do any of us really want anyone else to know what we surf on the net?) and I think that is blocking my attempts to change the home page. It's Webroot Spy Sweeper. I am thinking of uninstalling it to see if that works. What do you all think?

ok, so im seriously not a computer person, but! instead of uninstalling the spy sweeper, if you open itk, you should be able to turn it off or suspend it. that way, if its NOT the spy sweeper, you dont have to worry about getting it reinstalled... have you contacted geek squad??? if it were me, i think id call them and just tell em, 'listen its been doin this since i got it back, whats wrong with it' maybe its something that got missed @ the store... oh, and make sure your os is updated.. dunno if any of this will help or not, but hey, its worth a try?

~5PHF