Welcome to the forum pwol:

It is possible that your Norton AntiVirus (NAV) security has locked your home page (rather than it being hijacked by malicious malware).

The info below refers to NAV 2006, but might still apply:

Certain versions of  NAV lock the homepage. To disable:
Open NAV > Options > under the Internet section, click on Home Page Protection.
Uncheck all three options:
- "Turn home page protection on"
- "Block all attempts to change my homepage"
- "Alert me when my home page loads"

Then try changing to you regular home page, using the usual internet options technique. Let us know how it goes- there are other things to try.

Hi joe53,

thank you for your reply.

NAV 2008 does not have the options that you listed and that I could find. The closes thing I could see was in the browser intrusion prevention options and I had no luck when they where unchecked. Anyway I have previously chatted with a Norton tech and he said that NAV was not responsible for my problem, but they could fix it for $99us. 

Heavens - don't pay Norton for what may be their problem! (And I'm assuming you have no other security programs loaded that might lock your home page- there are many).

In any event, try this first:

Reboot into Safe Mode, and change your homepage in Control Panel:

- In Safe Mode, open Control Panel, click on Internet Options>General tab
- In the address window(IE6) or Home page (IE7), type the desired URL ( use the full http:// > format)
- Click [OK]
- Re-boot into windows.

No way was I ever considering to paying Symantec that price.

I tried Safe Mode with no success my home page is still hijacked. 

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@pwol wrote:

 

I tried Safe Mode with no success my home page is still hijacked. 

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Assuming you mean you were able to boot into safe mode, but unable to get the change to stick, then your remaining options are listed here:
http://naut.homestead.com/files/locked/locked.html

If none of them work for you, the last almost certainly will (#3: HijackThis logfile option).

The change in safe mode did not stick. I posted the Hijackthis logfile please have a look, your help is appreciated.

Thanks.

pwol:

I see you posted your HJT logfile in the HJT forum. Please be patient waiting for a reply, as the experts there are swamped with requests. It might take a day or two.

Since you are using IE7, one thing worth trying while you wait is to temporarily disable all the IE7 browser add-ons. One of them might be causing your problem. To do this, simply right-click your IE7 icon on your desktop, and select Start Without Add-ons. When IE7 opens, try changing your home page via Tools>Internet Options>General tab. Make sure you click Apply after making the change. Close IE7.

Re-open IE7, again without Add-ons. If it opens to your desired Home page, then one of your Add-ons is responsible.

Best of luck!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/556052

registry changes:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"RunOnceComplete" =dword:00000001
"RunOnceHasShown"=dword:00000001

or this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945385

pwol,

you might want to reply to your HJT log submission, to tell BugBatter that you've fixed the problem.

Thank you xcator for the solution and to Joe53 for your help.

Bravo.

@xcator:

Thanks also. I have added this info to my website.

Registry entry from xcator not found in Vista H.P.32bit

IE 7.0.6001.1800

I have scanned with Malicious Software Detector and four other malicious software detectors, and virus scanners, deleted temp files, cookies, cleaned the drive, set new home pages like yahoo, etc, to no avail, although it is interesting that the only Home Page that yields this issue is the FoxnNews.com page.  It disappeared for a little while after the Microsoft Malicious Software scan.   This problem is spreading to other sites.  Perhaps reinstall IE or upgrade to IE8???  I want to know what this is about.  I want ontological news.

My home page : http//www.foxnews.com is redirected to a dell url link which has the content shown below.  The error page says it is a Google error and cites the inability to locate the url ( dell-usuk/afe ) as shown below in the copy:

Not Found

The requested URL /hws/dell-usuk/afe was not found on this server.

I found the culprit, in my case, was an entry in Webroot prohibiting the change of Home Page in IE.  With that having been reconfigured, the problem is gone like truth in politics.