Scotty, at least you've got Firefox back, though I'm at a loss to know what's happened with your Chrome. I did have a look on Yahoo Answers and have seen that someone else posted a similar problem to yours a few days ago, but there has been no reply yet.

My Firefox is working fine now, thanks to you El Loro.

I`ve looked a few things up myself and I believe the virus is called "Homepage Hijack" 

The recommended scans I`ve done haven`t worked. There is a manual way to fix it but it`s very complicated and I`m a bit scared incase I make things worse. 

I`ll be interested to hear the reply, if there is one, from your Yahoo enquiry. 

Scottykins   can't help cos I'm a technophobe but aren't they barstewards for doing it   but I can give you an 'ug 

The best way to find the Hijacker is to first manually restore your home page. Use the Internet Options applet in the Control Panel and on the General tab, change your home page. To reset your search page select the Programs tab and click on Reset Web Settings, reboot and see if it gets hijacked again. If not, then your done; a site you visited had changed your home page using a script and did not download and install any file(s) that will continuously hijack your home page.

If your home page DOES get hijacked again after rebooting, then check the Startup group in Msconfig (type: Msconfig in the run window), see if the Hijacker is there. If you know what each startup item is, you should be able to find the Hijacker. If you don't know what has been added, maybe you have a backup Registry. If you have a backup Registry, reboot to a command prompt, Safe Mode or the Recovery Console, depending on what version of Windows you have and replace the Registry files with a backup. This should stop the Hijacker from hijacking your home page. You can also download HijackThis from the Internet. The program will display all files that are at all the autorun keys.( found this ,hope it helps)

Scotty, I'm not sure that you did your virus scan in safe mode. In Windows, that is the only way you can ensure that all viruses are found. To get Windows in safe mode you need to restart your computer and almost immediately press F8 - it needs to be done before Windows starts loading. You will get a DOS screen with a brief menu asking you to select which version of Windows you want. Use the arrows on your keyboard to select the Safe Mode operation and then press the return key. Wait until you see the Windows desktop. This will be in low resolution. Then run the virus checker.

It is best to leave the virus checker running rather than try to use any other programs so do it at a convenient time. Please note that your computer will not be able to access the internet when you are in safe mode, so don't bother trying.

Once the scan is done and any nasties dealt with by the scanner you will need to restart the computer in the ordinary way.

Thank you erin and El Loro. I`m going to try your advice. 

I`m a techie dunce so it will take me a bit of time to figure out and apply what you`ve suggested. 

I`ll leave it for today because I`m a bit pooped out with it all but I will give it a try tomorrow and let you know how it goes. 

Thank you for your help. x

Yes please and thank you Pengykins   

Horrible horrible that they do this to you. 

I`m okayish though, because EL Loro sorted Firefox for me so it`s not all bad. 

Scotty. when you launch Chrome can you click the spanner (top right)?

Does a menu drop down?

OPTIONS is fourth from bottom (on mine anyway) Click on it and a screen labelled BASICS should open.

The top section is called 'ON STARTUP' and gives 3 options click the 3rd option 'Open the Following pages:' then type the address of the page you want (NOT google for now)

OR

Leave the top option (Open the home page) selected and in the 2nd part - HOME PAGE - type in the address of some other page.

OPTIONAL:-

In the 3rd section, 'TOOLBAR' you can check the 'Always show bookmark bar' checkbox.

Then close down your browser and re open. If it works as intended then you should be able to use Chrome again, but be warned, it is unlikely to have removed what's upsetting your original home page, so you might want to change your search engine as well, for the meantime.

How are things with your computer. Are you all sorted yet?

Thanks for asking Fluffy  no not sorted yet. I`m going to give everything posted later that I haven`t tried ^^^ a try, when I get the chance. It just takes so much time to follow it plus me being a techie dunce doesn`t help.  

At least I`ve got FF, thanks to EL Loro. 

Many thanks. I`ll let you know how it goes when I pluck up the courage to tackle it. 

If I don`t succeed I`ll call on my pal to help me.  

Awww *encouraging hug-------. *

Someone has posted a sem-answer on that Yahoo Answers link:

"I don't know how to permanently make it stop, but whenever it suddenly goes to google beta, I click on "classic google" at the bottom of the page, and then type a random search and click enter, and then go to my history and delete the original "google" (not the search on classic google, just the ssl beta search) and then the next time I go to google, it takes me to classic google instead of google ssl beta.

Every few months I have to do this. I really hate google beta."

I`m back. 

Thank you again everyone. I`ve tried everything that you`ve all suggested but nothing is shifting it. 

I`ve done a bit of research and it turns out it`s not a virus. This is a post from the google help site.

Bergrenner Level 1 8/4/11

Yeah this has been posted like a million times here, but the problem still remains.

 

How do i remove the google ssl beta search engine from my Google chrome browser. It just popped up today, and i cant remove it. I cant go to any other google sites either as it just redirects me to google ssl again again again and again.. Using the "use google classic" buttons doesnt work either.

 

I am almost losing my mind here !

 

I have cleared the cache and it doesnt work.

 

I have also tried to change things in the options/manage search engines category but that thing needs a PhD in computers to be handled... If i make a new one in here that is just called google.dk nothing happens and i can´t activate it as my new standard search engine !

 

Can someone please tell me what to do.

 

On a personal note as a former buisnessman i think that google is out on a limb here pushing stuff down peoples throats that they don´t want ? What is that all about? I didn´t ask for the google ssl search engine and i dont want it when its just a beta version...!

....................................................................................................................................................

This is link from the google help site. People with the same problem but no solution to it yet, as far as I can see. I`m going to e.mail google and complain. 

 

http://www.google.com/support/...5dc2563b9d&hl=en

 

It`s also changed my internet explorer to google chrome SSL Beta. 

I`ve lost all my favourites. 

I`m not a happy bunny. 

aww jeez, I wish I could help, Can you remove chrome and all that jazz from add/remove and just install firefox...i never have a problem with firefox Hope you get it sorted, Scotty!

Thanks zazz. 

I`m now using Firefox. 

I think you cant really go wrong with it Hope you manage to get rid of the stuffs you dont want

Thanks again zazz.  I`ll have to learn how to bookmark stuff etc on Firefox. I`m just checking how it all works. 

My head`s spinning. 

ah you will soon get used to it, once you find your way round you wont look back

Cheers zazz    

Scotty when you have a minute do a computer search in Safe Mode (press F8 when you start up) and remove every last file that has to do with Chrome.  You don't want anything hanging around on your hard drive.

Okay, I`ll do that squiggle. Thank you.  

One question. How do I get it back out of Safe Mode? 

What a nightmare you're having Scotty...I'd have thrown the damned thing out of the window by now!

You just shut it down from Safe Mode and it restarts normally, good luck.

  I nearly did that Supes. My head`s minced with it all. 

Google, forcing stuff on you that you don`t want and there`s not much you can do about it unless you`re a computer whizz.  Which I`m not. 

Oh, that sounds easy enough squiggle. Thank you for you help. 

I know its been a pain Scotty but its through battling with problems like this that we learn more about how to deal with our pet monsters (otherwise known as computers)

 That`s true squiggle. I obviously wish it hadn`t happened but I`ve learned quite a lot over the past few days, thanks to you and everyone else who`s helped me......  

I`ve been to places I`ve never been before. 

Finally....

Thanks so much for all you help. It`s very much appreciated. 

I`m now going to try to catch up on the threads I`ve missed while trying to sort out this wee booger.