AutoSearch from IE6 Address Bar

I was recently Highjacked by some rather malicious AdWare (very red face) and it caused quite a bit of frustration. I've cleaned it all out but now I can't get auto.search.msn to work from my address bar. When I type something (for example "fox ") it used to open up the MSN search engine and give me choices. Now it just tries to go to "http:///?%20fox ". I've tried to change all the settings in 'tools-> Internet Options -> Advanced Tab -> Search from address bar' without any change in results. Does anyone know of a Registry hack that can bring this feature back to me or what part of the Registry controls this? Any and all help greatly appreciated.

 

Search your PC for a file named hosts (no extension). I'd tell you where but it depends on the OS version and you didn't say.

Hosts is a text file so open it in notepad, select the entire contents, and paste that to a reply here.

My guess is that some of the malware added entries there that you don't want.

 

Thanks for the quick reply Newt. I'm using XP Home (SP2) and the HOST file in the Windows\Drivers\ETC folder only has the following listing:

127.0.0.1 localhost

Thanks,

Joe

 

Hi Newt (and all interested),
I searched the net and found the answer to the problem. It was a bit obscure but what that Malware did was to change my urlSearchHook setting. To correct it I changed it back to the proper hook and it works like a charm. The Registry entry was fixed to:
correct the Registry by adding the following...

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\URLSearchHooks] "{CFBFAE00-17A6-11D0-99CB-00C04FD64497} "=" "

Hope this helps someone else out.