About:Blank hijackings areusually caused by spyware browser hijackers and may also involve downloadtrojans, backdoor trojans and computer worms infecting your computer. In thepast it was possible to manually remove some of these infections but they arebecoming increasingly more sophisticated so that it has now reached a pointwhere most anti-spyware programs can no longer detect and remove them. Toremove them you need to scan your system with an equally sophisticated spywareremoval tool capable of removing the computer worms, trojans andspyware browser hijackers that can cause this problem.
About:Blank Behavior And Why They're So Difficult To Remove
Ina small percentage of cases the cause may be due to a startpage trojan or the"I Love You" worm, which sets the browser homepage to a blank page.However, the main cause of this problem is due to CWS browser hijackerinfections also known as the HomeOldSP hijacker. Browser hijackers are notviruses and are therefore undetectable by anti-virus programs. The browserhijackers that cause this problem replace your browser start page with a HTMLfile that resides on your computer which characteristically has its address setto 'about:blank'. It has the appearance of a search engine with links tovarious products for sale [screenshot]. Income is earned by its ownersand affiliates if you visit any of these paid ad links.
A BHO (Browser Helper Object) isinstalled in your web browser which consumes system resources slowing down yourcomputer and internet connection. This BHO is associated with a hidden DLLdefined in registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Windows\\AppInit_DLLs. The more sophisticated variantsdynamically change their executable to evade the simple hash recognitionmethods used by the majority of anti-spyware programs. Executable code may bestored in your browser's cache. Hidden dlls will restore the hijacker if itsfiles are deleted and they can be difficult to purge from memory. They canrestore their registry definitions if they've been deleted. They start withWindows and can restore their Windows startup settings if they've been deleted.
Other behaviors include changing yourdefault search settings, displaying pop-up ads and installing a trojan known asDownloader.Trojan. This trojan creates a serious security risk as it can in turndownload dangerous worms and backdoor trojans onto your PC.
- Download and Install STOPzilla Anti-Spyware. - STOPzilla Anti-Spyware is a reputable program that will fix this problem by removing a broad spectrum of spyware, browser hijackers, trojans and computer worms associated with about:blank hijacks:
- Delete all your temporary files - click Start, click Run and type 'cleanmgr', hit Enter.
- Run STOPzilla - Run a full system scan and fix the detected infections.
- Reboot
- Run STOPzilla again - Run a full system scan and remove any remaining infections.
Once you've removed the hijacker yourcomputer will return to normal and you'll have total control to change yourbrowser homepage and default search page. To change the homepage, in InternetExplorer click 'Tools', select 'Internet Options' and update the address forthe default homepage. The procedure to change the default search page may vary.Follow which ever options are presented to you as follows:
| In Internet Explorer:
| Otherwise, if the Customize button isn't shown:
10. click 'Autosearch Settings' 11. select a search engine and click OK. |