Expert: Brian Benosky - 5/12/2009

Question
My wife and I control access to our computer pretty carefully. We noticed that recently there were addresses in the top Explorer address bar that we did NOT put there. I know the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, but some of these are VERY long strings and I know neither of us typed them. Is there some malware or virus or hacker trick that could have done this? Thanks!!!

Answer
Hello Guy

It is possible that malware is the cause.  It is also possible that those URL's are from pop-up ads.  Let's have a look at a HijackThis log from your computer, which will tell me if malware is indeed involved.  Please download HijackThis to your desktop from here:
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/_download/HJTInstall.exe
Make sure you close EVERY open window and ALL browser windows. The only thing that should be open is the HijackThis program.
Double-click on the file you just downloaded.
Click on the "Install" button.
Upon install, HijackThis should open for you.
Should it not open, go to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis and double click on HijackThis.exe
Choose 'Do a system scan and save a log file'.
Copy the text file which opens in Notepad and paste it into your follow-up to me.
   * Do not fix any entries in HijackThis, as they may be harmless.

Brian