What is Browser Hijacking and How to Fix it?

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What is Browser Hijacking and How to Fix
it? Sometimes when youre busy working at your
computer and you notice multiple Internet
Explorer windowsstart opening at random and you
cannot stop them. Sometimes, you may be even
notice that your home page mysteriously changed.
When you notice these, it usually means that your
browser has been hijacked, usually by a piece of
malware. While these symptoms are unsettling, you
can reclaim Internet Explorer and return it to
functionality.
Browser hijacking is the modification of a web
browser's settings by a malware, spyware or a
virus. The
term "hijacking" is used as the changes are
performed without the user's permission. A
browser hijacker may replace the existing home
page, error page, or search page with its own.
These are generally used to force hits to a
particular website, increasing its advertising
revenue.
Some browser hijacking can be easily reversed,
while other instances may be difficult to
reverse. Various software packages exist to
prevent such modification. Step 1 Press
Ctrl-Alt-Del, select Task Manager and click
the Processes tab. Step 2 Find iexplore.exe
in the running processes list and click on it. If
more than one instance of iexplore.exe is
running, press and hold the Ctrl and click each
instance doing so will enable you to select
multiple instances at once. Step 3 Click the End
Process button. All Internet Explorer windows
should force close. Step 4 Click "Start," type
inetcpl.cpl in the Search box, and press
Enter to bring up Internet Properties. Step
5 Click the Delete . . . button under Browsing
History, check all items in the Delete Browsing
History dialog box and click Delete. Doing so
will remove your temporary files and hopefully
the culprit behind your browser hijack with
them. Step 6 Click the Privacy tab in Internet
Properties, make sure Turn on Pop-up Blocker is
checked and click Apply. The Pop-up blocker
helps prevent unwanted advertisement windows from
appearing. Step 7 Click the General tab, and
check the Web address listed in the Home Page
section. The browser hijacker may have altered
this. Change the address if needed, or click the
use blank button if you want to open Internet
Explorer with a blank page. Step 8 Launch your
anti-virus program. If you dont have one,
Microsoft offers a free solution called Microsoft
Security Essentials there are also free and paid
offerings on the market. If you need to install
an anti- virus product at this juncture, use
another computer to download the file and
transfer it to your computer via flash drive or
CD because Internet Explorer may still be
compromised. Step 9 Update your anti-virus
programs security definitions, run a full scan,
and remove any items found.