Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 5/21/2008

Question
when i set my home page which i want then too it is not applying to my page it oprn the msn page what may be the problem im trying to do this from option tool.

Answer
If you used the Tools --> Internet Options tabs, you have chosen the correct way to set your home page. I can think of two ways that your desired home page is failing to show up. You probably already know about clicking the down arrow to the right of the house icon. It should show a list of all your home pages, in case you have more than one. The menu the down arrow opens up allows you to delete unwanted home pages, or to click through on the home page you wish to see.

If this doesn't work, then it's possible your browser is infected by a poorly programmed adware program. I say poorly programmed because usually adware forces your home page to be something dreadful like a porn or illegal gambling site. There is no way MSN would force your browser to keep it as your home page because it is a legitimate company. This is -- unless this isn't the real MSN, but a phishing site pretending to be MSN. These are dangerous, see http://www.anti-phishing.or for details on how these fake sites work.

If indeed something is terribly wrong with your browser, you can try to fix it with Ad-aware, from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ Or, just in case your computer is infected with something even more complicated than adware, here's what will almost certainly work.

1) Download either Kapersky Internet Security, which offers a free 30 day trial at

http://kapersky.com or F-Secure's Complete Internet security suite, which offers a free

thirty day trial: https://store.f-secure.com/cgi-bin/dlreg/ml=EN?ID=FSISTB&desid=TRIAL

2) Disconnect from the Internet.

3) Uninstall your current antivirus. This is absolutely essential because otherwise it and

F-Secure will fight each other and might crash your computer. It isn't good enough to just

turn off your old antivirus because it probably has been crippled by your virus infection.

4) Install your Internet Security product. Download any updates available.

5) Run a complete scan of your computer. Follow any instructions it might give you.

6) Reboot.

If this works, you can either keep yourt new Internet Security product or uninstall it and

reinstall your old antivirus from either a download of the latest version from their website

(if that's how they sell it) or from the disk it was on when you bought it. Be sure to get

all the latest updates right away. Usually antivirus companies are pretty good about

updating their programs whenever some new attack becomes able to evade or cripple their

product.

If you weren't running an antivirus program that includes antispyware protection and a

firewall, then I recommend that you not reinstall your old program. Nowadays we need total

protection, and this includes antispyware and a firewall.

7) To prevent future infections, don't use Internet Explorer, as it is susceptible to

introducing viruses, adware and spyware into your computer. Instead you could use Firefox,

free from Mozilla.org . Instead of using Outlook for email, you could use Thunderbird, free

from Mozilla.org, or Eudora, free from Eudora.com .