Not sure this is the best place to pop this, but I can't see anywhere better.  ???

I'm at work. The Net was down yesterday, I thought because maybe our ISP was down or some such thing. However, the boss has told me this morning that the problem is there seems to be some kind of Virus or 'Hidden Cookie' that is automatically 'activating' IE and going to a page called "www .allneedsearch.com", which is not a 'Search Engine' (as it can't find anything), but it causes a whole pile of 'Adult sites' to automatically come to screen AND even install themselves as 'Favorites'. This 'allneedsearch' site keeps repeatedly making itself the IE 'Homepage' also.

(The Net was down yesterday because there was a lady here in the morning and he didn't want these pages popping up in front of her!)  

He has tried to delete everything he can thru DOS etc (which I know absolutely nothing about), but the file that he seems to think it is, won't delete.

Has anyone had an encounter with this sort of thing (a page making itself your Homepage, or other pages automatically assigning themselves as 'Favorites' etc).  ???

It seems that one of the 'grubs' here has used the Net and downloaded some nasty little 'hidden cookie' or worse, some sort of 'virus'.  

What does it sound like??  ???

(The boss has the Computer man coming tomorrow to see what he can do, but I told him I'd see if anyone could shed some light)  ???

P.S. Thankfully, this is only occurring on one PC, which is connected to a server. Apparently the 'F' Drive (server) is protected from anything that anyone might do on an 'individual PC' (As you can see, I don't know how all this stuff works)  

Also clear out all stored cookies in your browser. I no longer use IE because of the lack of security. It is known for being the worst browser when it comes to getting a virus or something. I now use Netscape and never had a security breech since I switched. (knock on wood!) not to mention faster.
I use Spyware blaster, and Spy bot Seek and Destroy.
Both are free and both do a great job at cleaning and preventing spyware.
Also if your browser has a pop-up blocker you may want to activate it until you remove what ever it is infecting your computer. Just to save face in those embarrassing moments!!
P.S. Also be sure to do a complete virus scan!!!!

Also, that little ad that pops up on this site, you know if you brush your mouse pointer over it ,the pop up shows asking if you want to download the IE Plug-in?
That would be the same type thing as the "allneedsearch" and could possibly be what you have if it was accidently allowed to install!!

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HOLY CHRIST!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for warning me.

That thing keeps poping up everytime I visit any site. At first, I thought it was something from Microsoft. But now that you tell me what it really is, I'll avoid it as much as I can.

Just yesterday, I had to clean out my entire computer AGAIN!!!

This is because I had several interuptions on my Previous cleaning process. Therefore, my computer kept thinking that there is more than 1 operating system installed. As a result [everytime I start the system] it kept asking me [in MSDOS prompt] which OS to start.

It was annoying. So, like I said, I cleaned it up yesterday. I backup a critical Windows Update file that I needed so that my computer is safe from the Blaster worm everytime I go online. I then went online to download and install the rest of the critical updates for the system and Norton. I also did a full system scan.

Nothing found. Whew.

Now I need to download and install the latest video drivers from Nvidia. Version 53.03. It's already available for everyone.

Man. First, the war. Then the Flu. Then the earthquakes. Then the viruses. Where the h377 is this world coming to?

Thanks people.   I knew I could count on some help here.  

I'll try a couple of the things that have been suggested and let you know how things went.

Who knows, I might be able to save the boss a few bucks........lol  

P.S. This is really a nasty thing, whatever it is. It's doing something else now!!
No matter what web page or documant is on screen, certain words are now automatically 'hyperlinked' to promotional web pages!!!
Wherever the word 'Credit' appears on the screen (regardless of the document it's in), it links to a 'Credit facility site'. Wherever the word "health' appears, it links to an 'Online prescription site".
It's really beginning to get out of hand!!

Bren try finding a copy of a program called EndItAll (its freeware), this will show up all processes running on your machine, you should find any irregular ones, and their file name. You can then stop them running, search your system and delete them (make sure hidden folders are visible though, these spyware people are getting nastily clever!).
Apparently the new freeware video codecs are having spyware built in. The program has a name like tickler, and its got a strange filename. Its hidden in c:\WINDOWS\Documents and Settings\user name\Local Settings\Temp\somewhere here. There will be three folders Remember to run AdAware and SpyBot daily to help keep your machine free of these nasty things

Ozzy