Re: HELP! About:Blank Problem
From: Malke (malke_at_nospoonnotreally.com)
Date: 08/21/04
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Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 19:08:12 -0700
David H. Lipman wrote:
> Please go to one or more of the below online scanners and perform a
> scan of your platform then report back your results.
>
> Trend:
> http://housecall.antivirus.com
> http://housecall.trendmicro.com
>
> F-Secure:
> http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml
>
> McAfee:
> http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/mfs/default.asp
>
> Panda:
> http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/
>
> Kaspersky:
> http://www.kaspersky.com/de/scanforvirus
>
> Symantec:
> http://security.symantec.com/
>
> BitDefender
> http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/license.php
>
> "Laurie" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:a68301c4871e$ac7e6630$a601280a@phx.gbl...
> | I have the about:blank problem. I tried to get to
> | pandasoftware.com to download a trial of their anti-virus
> | product as suggested by an earlier post; HOWEVER I can't
> | download as the about:blank screen intercedes. I'm
> | stumped! Please, anyone, what should I do?? This has
> | been so frustrating and I'm not a very computer-savvy
> | person. HELP!! Thanks.
She may not be able to get to the av sites to scan. Laurie, first check
your hosts files:
1. If you have XP, go to Search preferences, set the files and folders
handling to Advanced, and then check the box that will make Search look
in hidden files/folders. For older os's, you just have to go to Find.
Make sure in all cases that you've enabled showing all hidden files and
file extensions (Folder Options>View).
2. Now enter the search term "hosts" without the quotes.
3. You will get several hosts and lmhosts files. Double-click each one
to open it. When you do this, you'll get a Windows dialog box saying
that Windows cannot open this file, do you want to use the web or
select from a list to find the proper program. Choose "select from a
list" and highlight Notepad. Make sure the box to always use this
program to open this type of file is not checked.
4. Now carefully examine the file. Lines that begin with a # are
comments and don't count. Leave them alone. Unless you know you use a
proxy server to get to the Internet or you added entries yourself, the
only uncommented entry that should be there is:
127.0.0.1 localhost
If you see any other entries, delete them and Save the file. Make sure
you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the window if there is a
scrollbar. Do this for each file you found. Now you should be able to
get to antivirus and spyware-fighting websites. Start by downloading
Stinger, a standalone antivirus here:
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
Scan in Safe Mode.
Continue your cleanup by removing spyware with Spybot Search & Destroy
from www.safer-networking.org and Ad-aware from www.lavasoftusa.com. Be
sure to update these programs before running them. These programs are
free, so run them both since they complement each other. You may also
want to run CWShredder and HijackThis from
http://aumha.org/freeware.htm. Although CWShredder is no longer being
updated, it will still clean older variants of the CoolWebSearch
malware. A combination of HijackThis and About:Buster (MajorGeeks)
works well on the about:blank problem. Always read the instructions
before running a spyware removal tool. These tools require skill and
knowledge. If you feel uneasy about running any of them, take the
machine to a good local repair shop.
Malke
-- MS MVP - Windows Shell/User Elephant Boy Computers www.elephantboycomputers.com "Don't Panic!"
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