Hello,

IE opens in the background and cycles through sites. The only way I can see this happen is through task manager. There is no way for me to maximize these.. nothing in the taskbar either. I ran adaware, spybot, hijack this, norton antivirus, and it is still doing it. I can prevent them from happening w/ zone alarm but not w/ any popup blocker. I'm totally stumped! can anyone help?? Here are some screenshots of what I can see in my task manager as the ie window cycles through sites:

http://www.soulshineonline.com/ietrouble/vir01.gif
http://www.soulshineonline.com/ietrouble/vir02.gif
http://www.soulshineonline.com/ietrouble/vir03.gif

Any help would be much appreciated, Thanks.

Curious stuff! I ran some quick google checks on the components of http://www.soulshineonline.com/ietrouble/vir01.gif and came up blank, which is where HijackThis steps in to do its job. HJT won't fix anything by itself - it needs to be looked at with experienced eyes.

If the programs used were all updated recently, then rescan with HijackThis and post a log in reply here.

Thanks iceblue,

I cleaned out a bunch of stuff but I may have missed something. Here is my most recent log..

Logfile of HijackThis v1.97.7
Scan saved at 5:38:20 PM, on 12/19/2003
Platform: Windows XP SP1 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP1 (6.00.2800.1106)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccEvtMgr.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\atiptaxx.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\realsched.exe
C:\Program Files\Adaptec\Easy CD Creator 5\DirectCD\DirectCD.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\ZONELA~1\ZONEAL~1\zlclient.exe
C:\windows\rundll32.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\efax\Dllcmd32.exe
C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZoneLabs\vsmon.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\realevent.exe
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE
C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\Adam\Desktop\hijack this\HijackThis.exe

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = about:blank
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.yahoo.com/
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = about:blank
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch = about:blank
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = about:blank
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch = about:blank
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = about:blank
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchURL,(Default) = about:blank
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,(Default) = about:blank
N3 - Netscape 7: user_pref("browser.search.defaultengine", "engine://C%3A%5CProgram%20Files%5CNetscape%5CNetscape%5Csearchplugins%5CSBWeb_01.src"); (C:\Documents and Settings\Adam\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\aeo2qw58.slt\prefs.js)
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.ocx
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {53707962-6F74-2D53-2644-206D7942484F} - C:\PROGRA~1\SPYBOT~1\SDHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: NAV Helper - {BDF3E430-B101-42AD-A544-FADC6B084872} - C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Norton AntiVirus - {42CDD1BF-3FFB-4238-8AD1-7859DF00B1D6} - C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: &Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINDOWS\System32\msdxm.ocx
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AtiPTA] atiptaxx.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TkBellExe] C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\realsched.exe -osboot
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AdaptecDirectCD] C:\Program Files\Adaptec\Easy CD Creator 5\DirectCD\DirectCD.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccApp] C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccRegVfy] C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccRegVfy.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Zone Labs Client] C:\PROGRA~1\ZONELA~1\ZONEAL~1\zlclient.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [rundll32] C:\windows\rundll32.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Gamma Loader.exe.lnk = C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Calibration\Adobe Gamma Loader.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Live Menu.lnk = C:\Program Files\Common Files\efax\Dllcmd32.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Office.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\OSA9.EXE
O6 - HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions present
O6 - HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel present
O9 - Extra button: AIM (HKLM)
O16 - DPF: {166B1BCA-3F9C-11CF-8075-444553540000} (Shockwave ActiveX Control) - http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/director/swdir.cab
O16 - DPF: {41F17733-B041-4099-A042-B518BB6A408C} - http://apple.speedera.net/qtinstall.info.apple.com/borris/us/win/QuickTimeInstaller.exe
O16 - DPF: {CAFEEFAC-0014-0000-0003-ABCDEFFEDCBA} (Java Runtime Environment 1.4.0_03) -
O16 - DPF: {D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000} (Shockwave Flash Object) - http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab

May I suggest that you close all browser windows and have HJT fix these items:

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = about:blank
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = about:blank
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch = about:blank
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = about:blank
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch = about:blank
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = about:blank
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchURL,(Default) = about:blank
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,(Default) = about:blank
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [rundll32] C:\windows\rundll32.exe
O6 - HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions present
O6 - HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel present

Reboot, and delete the C:\windows\rundll32.exe file - WARNING: Do NOT touch the file of the same name in your Windows\System32 folder, which is a vital Windows system file!

tried it and so far so good.. thanks!