I've done everything you can possibly imagin to rid myself of this beast. I've followed every procedure in the book and still it remains about:blank. If anyone ever comes up with a solution to this problem. Please contact me ASAP. Thank you

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I can't believe I am about to say this...but I am. For the folks who have already posted: If you are having the "about:blank" problem please do the following: CWShredder Download, Unzip, Run, “Fix” - SpyBot S&D Download, Install, Update, Run - Ad-Aware 6 Download, Install, Update, Run - SpywareBlaster Download, Install, Download Latest Protection Updates, Enable All Protection IF YOU CANNOT GET TO THESE SITES IN ANYWAY, OR YOU HAVE ALREADY TRIED ALL OF THESE TOOLS (UPDATED, MIND YOU), and you are still having the same problem.... Feel free to post a HijackThis! log and I or someone else will take a look at over the weekend and as time permits. Please, guys, I beg that everyone on earth will not flood this post with Hijack Logs. Lets try and keep it sane. If you have tried the above tools and cannot fix the problem....post. HijackThis! can be downloaded from the same site as CWShredder in the link above. good luck, moderator forgive me. AOSCLAY

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Jeff! I had the same problem as you and I finally got rid of it by doing the following. Download the following freeware Spysweeper for Webroot Killbox Registrar Lite www.resplendence.com A) Install all products B) Open Spysweeper and hit the update button. After it updates go to Options and make sure you have 1) the correct drive selected 2) Sweep memory and sweep registry selected. 3) make sure “Skip files larger that 100000 kb is Unchecked. C) Click Sweep now and delete whatever it tells you to. D) In spysweeper click on the Active Shield tab. 1) In the block on the left, select “on” for home page shield. 2) set the home page you want in the “protected home page address bar…ie…http://www.yahoo.com 3) Select “Always notify before restoring” this way if the .dll recreates itself it will notify you so you can get an idea “exactly when it happens”. 4) In the “Tracking Cookie Shield” block turn the shield “on” 5) In the next block turn the “Memory shield” on. HIT APPLY E) Run Reglite , enter HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\\AppInit_DLLs into the address bar. F) Click AppInit_DLLs, if the bottom textfield named value contains a .dll file ; then this is the hidden file you need to get rid off. G) IMPORTANT: take at note of the path and name of the .dll file. DO NOT TRY TO DELETE IT NOW! H) Rename the Folder windows to NOTWINDOWS highlighted as a purple folder in the left hand pane of reglite. I) Click AppInit_DLLs again and clear the value containing the .dll and ok it. This should have removed the .dll J) Rename the windows folder back to its original name "Windows". K) The next step will be to remove this dll file so make sure you have it written down. L) Open Killbox M) Type in the “FULL PATH” should look something like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\oplng.dll (this is an example not the file you want to delete) N) Under the “Action menu, select “delete on reboot” O) Click “File” on the little window that pops up and select “Add file” and select “Exit”. This will kill the file and if it trys to recreate itself on reboot it will kill it for good! P) Once the machine reboots you will be good to go! Trusman

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For all of you stuck with the "about:blank" problem, I got the perfect solution for you! Format the fu**** thing! Yeah that's it! Just ERASE everything and start all over again...I'm currently saving all my precious stuff on a portable hard-drive and after that it's hasta la vista baby! I just got sick of all those message they call "Solutions". Hijack-This and WS SHRED that and Spybot-this and Ad-aware- that! This is useless! I have no time to search for that "hidden" DLL! If that b---tard want to keep Hiding well then Live and let die! I don't wanna send nobody no Hijack-this report! Anyway, you can go on searching that little prick of a file or you can take the red pill and go back to the real world, baby! That's what i'm talking about! I'm out!

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wow...that was harsh....maybe you should check out the CWS Chronicles before you FFR....or just do it. let there be peace on earth...and let it begin with.... The CWS Chronicles yee-haw AOSCLAY Monkies Can't Do This

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Hey Nick, Oh, by the way...You said: "I just got sick of all those message they call "Solutions". Hijack-This and WS SHRED that and Spybot-this and Ad-aware- that! This is useless!" Just in case you are wondering why we reccommend all that "useless" stuff before going into other things, I will explain. 1) If we didn't we would be overrun by common spyware/hijack threats that these things can fix. How do I know this...because I do it everyday back in the real world. (I love the red pill) 2) Trying to talk the average user step by step through what amounts to often complex tasks is diffcult and often unsuccessful. Manually fixing a lot of this stuff is beyond the average user's scope of ability. Automated detection/repair utilities are often far more useful to people than a 22 step process for manually removing things. They aren't perfect, but you are smart to try them first. 3) THEY WORK. They are highly effective against THOUSANDS of threats that plague people everyday. Some they are not effective against. That's just the law of the jungle. Its too bad you don't have time to fix your problems. FFR is for the weak willed young jedi. (sorry, couldn't help myself there). Sorry you are sick of it. A lot of people are. That's why we do this. For the record, its CWShredder, not WS SHRED. Not sure what WS SHRED is but it sounds like it would be good on salad. LAter AOSCLAY Monkies Can't Do This

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Nick m8 That is the best solution I have read yet (and i've been looking for an easy solution on loads of forums) I did get rid of it for a few days at one point... but the little sh** came back. My PC is like fort nox now and I have so many bl**dy spyware removers installed it's a joke. The amount of times i've called Microsoft to re-register fu**** XP is just stupid!! Big respect to the posters who put the time and effort to help others to fix this problem, but i'm thinking Nick's solution is now the way forward. You made my night when I read your post (why didn't I think of that a few weeks ago!!) I'm gonna take that red pill now, light up a J and sit back and laugh as I destroy that little sh** once and for all. I just have a bad feeling i'll meet him again someday Laters

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trusman, THANKS for the step-by-step. I've been fighting this for a couple months and the advise on the SWI forums is vague at best and in-accurate at worst. The key using reglite instead of regedit and following the instructions to the letter. Thanks again.

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I've been having this problem now for a while, too, and noticed the culprit is always a .dll file hiding in C:\windows\system32. I find it by running McAfee's antivirus software. The software finds the .dll file but can't erase it so what I do everytime is go get it directly in system32, cut and paste it onto the desktop, restart the computer and erase the .dll file afterwards (it can't be erased directly in the system32 folder it seems...) The problem is, it comes back continuously under different names, so I have to run the antivirus everytime, which takes a while and it very annoying. My system32 folder is *filled* with all sorts of .dll files which I don't dare touch in fear of some sort of catastrophy (...) I have Spybot and it doesn't catch the bugger. So the question is: is there a quicker way of fiding this new .dll file? Can I rely on some sort of last modification date? Or am I just scratching the surface when I delete this file? Thanks Soph

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Soph, Follow the steps outlined here by trusman carefully and it won't come back. Summary: - Download killbox, cwshredder, and reglite - Close ALL applications - Run the usual anti-spyware packaes - Run CWShredder (to remote it from being live) - Run RegLite (follow his directions carefully) - Run Killbox to have it delete on reboot BEFORE it is used

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I did a search of of all .dll files on my PC. I then disabled the permissions on 4 strange looking ones that had been installed in the last month. I then ran HijackThis, CWshedder, spybot search & destroy, Ad-Aware, spyware Blaster and installed Startpage Guard. I then installed all the lastest security patches from windows update and rebooted. I then ran all the above programs again and checked my registry for anything out of the ordinary. So far it is gone, time will tell. Let me know if this helps or if I may have screwed myself somewhere along the way. Randall Barney

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Randall, Everything you said sounds right, but this has a particularly nasty way of going away for a few hours or even days and popping back up. Use RegLite to check for the AppInit_DLLs entry and if it is there, follow the instructions above. There were many times that I thought i removed it but was wrong...

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Here is the info. of the responsible parties who created the about:blank. searchx.cc Registrant: Galina Charmandjieva (xboy66a@yahoo.com) City Chess 8.1 Elista, NONE 358000 RU 5-41-62 Domain Name: searchx.cc Administrative, Technical, Billing Contact: Galina Charmandjieva (xboy66a@yahoo.com) City Chess 8.1 Elista, NONE 358000 RU 5-41-62 Record created on Mar 17 2004. Record expires on Mar 17 2005. Domain servers: n1.searchx.cc n3.searchx.cc Domain name: msie.cc used for about:blank popup. Registrant: LD Post Box 2321 Beirut, Beirut 5098 LB Domain name: MSIE.CC Administrative Contact: Domak, Lie liedomak@yahoo.de Post Box 2321 Beirut, Beirut 5098 LB +1.4165551122x1234 Technical Contact: Domak, Lie liedomak@yahoo.de Post Box 2321 Beirut, Beirut 5098 LB +1.4165551122x1234 Registration Service Provider: MASTAK.RU, domain@mastak.ru +7 095 926-87-41 Record last updated on 10-May-2004. Record expires on 28-Jan-2006. Record created on 28-Jan-2004. Domain servers in listed order: NS2.MSIE.CC 38.113.193.5 NS3.MSIE.CC 66.55.136.86

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