• Home Page Continually Keeps Resetting to a Different Website
• System Performance and/or Connection Speed Declines Drastically
• Abnormally High Number of Popup Windows

These problems are characteristic of Browser Hijacking programs, Adware and Spyware.

CoolWebSearch is a name given to a wide range of different browser hijackers that runs a Java applet. It distributes itself by exploiting security holes in older or unpatched versions of Windows and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Some variants (eg., CWS.Vrape) will redirect to adult sites or invoke dialers. There are many varients on the Internet.

The most common symptoms you see are:

• HomePage hijacks [to CoolWebSearch sites or it's affiliates].
• Internet Explorer Search engine hijacks, ie. you are forced to specific search pages.
• Unwanted menu-extensions and favorites added.
• Missing Tabs in Internet Explorer Options.
• Redirection to adult sites.
• System dials to connect using other dialers, some of which may be to "900" or overseas numbers.

There is a program available for free called CWShredder which will detect and remove all known varients of the CoolWebSearch hijacker program. INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the "Download CWShredder" button below and save the file to your Desktop. This file is the actual program....there is no install required. Double-clicking on the icon will launch the program.

After downloading and installing CWShredder, run the program and first click the "Check for Update" button to make sure that you have the latest version, as new variants of the CoolWebSearch hijacker program are released frequently. (Note that the CWShredder home site seems to get hit by denial of service attacks, which cause the Check for Updates function to hang. If this occurs, X out of the program and re-run it with the version that you have, skipping the Check for Updates function.)

In addition to Browser Hijacking programs, Adware and Spyware programs may infect your computer and cause problems. These programs attempt to track your Internet travels and provide targeted advertising to you based upon the websites that you visit. They can cause as many problems on a system as viruses, but aren't categorized as such and, therefore, may not be detected by anti-virus programs. Two programs that are useful in detecting and removing adware and spyware from your system are:

• Ad-Aware - Detects and removes data mining, advertising and tracking software on your system - Free. INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the "Download Ad-Aware" button below and save the file to your Desktop. Double-click on that file's icon to launch the install for Ad-Aware. Once the installation is complete, you can delete the original downloaded file, as there will be a new icon for the Ad-Aware program on your Desktop. Double-clicking this icon will launch the program.


 

• SpyBot Search and Destroy - Another program for detecting and removing spyware on your system - Free. INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the "Download SpyBot Search and Destroy" button below and save the file to your Desktop. Double-click on that file's icon to launch the install for SpyBot. Once the installation is complete, you can delete the original downloaded file, as there will be a new icon for the SpyBot program on your Desktop. Double-clicking this icon will launch the program.

It is also important to note that many of these types of programs exploit vulnerabilities in Windows and Internet Explorer, which can be avoided by patches available via Microsoft Windows Update (Note: Windows Explorer is required to use the Windows Upadate site).