PC Hell: How to Remove About:Blank Homepage Hijacker

About:Blank Homepage Hijacker
Removal Instructions and Help

How did my homepage get set to About:Blank?

The About:Blank homepage hijacker is a variation of a more advanced Cool Web Search hijacker. There are several variants of the About:Blank hijacker and all of them are difficult to remove manually. This hijacker is also referred to as the HomeOldSP hijacker because of the changes to the registry that can be seen using HijackThis such as

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,HomeOldSP = about:blank

This is very similar in characteristics to the random dll hijacker also known as HomeSearch Hijacker that came out around the same time. The key to the hijack is a hidden dll file that is connected to a BHO (Browser Hijack Object). This hidden dll file shows up in the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\\AppInit_DLLs

Unfortunately removing this About:Blank hijacker can be difficult. Its a very persistent problem that can return quickly if it is not removed carefully.

How do I Remove the About:Blank homepage hijacker?

There are three basic proven methods that help remove this pesky hijacker, a manual one, one using vbscripts and an automatic one used by a spyware removal program.

MANUAL METHOD

The manual method of removing the About:Blank hijacker is probably the most difficult, since if it is not followed absolutely correctly it can return quickly. There are two programs that are needed to help with this removal. The first is HijackThis and the next is a registry program called Reglite.exe, this particular program for whatever reason seems to be able to find the hidden dll file without the hijacker trying to undo the work and attack the system again.

Once you've downloaded HijackThis and Reglite, open Registrar Lite and navigate to the following entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows

Look for the Key named AppInit_DLLs, the value in this key is the hidden dll file that is causing your problems. Write down the name of this file and think of it as the hidden.dll file

Secondly, use the Windows Recovery Console in Windows XP to rename the file.

Restart the computer in Recovery Console mode using the Windows XP or Windows 2000 CD or by the option show below
Type cd \windows\system32 and press Enter
Type the following line to remove the read-only characteristic, replacing hidden.dll with the name of the dll file found with RegLite

ATTRIB -R hidden.dll

Rename the hidden.dll file by typing the following command (replacing the word hidden.dll with the actual filename)

RENAME hidden.dll badfile.dll

Type Exit and press Enter to Reboot Windows

ALTERNATE ACCESS TO RECOVERY CONSOLE

If you have Internet access still, place your Windows XP or Windows 2000 CD in the Drive and cancel out of any autostart menus.
1) Log onto the Internet
2) Click on the Start button
3) Click on Run
4) Type the following in the RUN line and Press Enter

D:\I386\WINNT32.EXE /CMDCONS

Make sure you use your CD Drive letter in place of the letter D above

5) The computer will start to install the Recovery Console and add it as a boot option.
6) Once installed, you'll be able to restart your computer and press F8 to start the Boot Menu. Press the ESC key and you should have the following option available to choose

MICROSOFT WINDOWS RECOVERY CONSOLE

7) Choose your Windows Installation, usually by pressing 1 and pressing Enter.

You'll have to enter the Administrator password to gain access to the Windows Recovery Console. If you do not know your Administrator password, you may try the procedure to help with a bad or unknown Administrator password.

FIX FOR BAD OR UNKNOWN ADMINSTRATOR PASSWORD

1) In Windows, click on Start, Run, and Type REGEDIT
2) Click on the plus signs (+) next to the following keys

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
MICROSOFT
WINDOWS NT
CURRENTVERSION
SETUP
RECOVERY CONSOLE

3) Double-click on the option SECURITYLEVEL in the right-hand column and change the Value Data number to 1 then press OK

4) Restart the computer in Recovery Console mode using the Windows XP or Windows 2000 CD

Next, Remove the hidden.dll file from the registry

Open RegLite.exe and navigate to the following registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\AppInit_DLLs
Double-click on the AppInit_DLLs key, delete the name of the dll file in the Value Data field, Apply the Changes and click OK then Exit Registrar Lite.

Edit registry to remove the second file

Run HiJackThis and scan the registry. Check the boxes to remove the entries similar to the following:

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\Main,SearchBar=res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\xaiyh.dll/sp.html#29126
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\xaiyh.dll/sp.html#29126
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = about:blank
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\xaiyh.dll/sp.html#29126
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\xaiyh.dll/sp.html#29126
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\xaiyh.dll/sp.html#29126
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\xaiyh.dll/sp.html#29126

The dll file shown in these lines (in this case its called xaiyh.dll) is the second problematic file in the about:blank hijack.

Open My Computer and choose Tools, then click on Folder Options, click on the View tab and under Advanced Setting, choose Show Hidden Files and Folders, then click on OK and close My Computer. In Windows XP/2000, you may also want to uncheck the options for "Hide extensions for known file types" and "hide protected operating system files". This will although you to easily find the dll files to delete them.

Lastly, search for and delete the hidden.dll file found through reglite.exe and this second dll file found using HijackThis.

Click Start, point to Find or Search, and then click Files or Folders.
Make sure that "Look in" is set to (C:\WINDOWS).
In the "Named" or "Search for..." box, type, or copy and paste, the name of the hidden.dll filename you found using Reglite.exe. This file was renamed badfile.dll in our procedure. Search for it and delete it, then repeat this step for the dll filename you found using Hijackthis.

This should completely clean your system of the About:Blank homepage hijacker.

VBSCRIPTS REMOVAL METHOD

A company called Silent Runners has come up with several Visual Basic Scripts used in conjunction with Registar Lite 2.0 to remove the About:Blank version of the CWS Cool Web Search hijacker. You can visit their website and read through the instructions by clicking on the following link:

http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_cwsremoval.html

AUTOMATIC REMOVAL METHOD

A new adware removal program called Adware Away has proven very successful in removing the About:Blank homepage hijacker along with many other hijacker type programs. They have a trial version that is fully functional which allows most people to remove the About:Blank hijacker without having to purchase it. The trial version of Adware Away seems to last between 5 to 7 days before timing out and requiring payment. You can visit their webpage and download a trial of Adware Away by clicking on the following link. You may also purchase the program for $29.95.

I recommend this program for instances where the manual removal methods dont work. Currently there are about 5 variants of the About:Blank homepage hijacker and Adware Away handles all these variants.

http://www.adwareaway.com/aboutblank.htm

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