"Li'l Abner" <blvstk@dogpatch.com> wrote in
news:Xns9E8CC13784280butter@wefb973cbe498:

> Brand New HP Desktop with Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
> Internet Explorer home page comes up to
> http://hp-desktop.us.msn.com. No way in hell can I change it to just
> plain http: //www.msn.com. I Googled and found a couple of so called
> cures, neither of which worked. Set IE to original defaults. Deleted
> all temp internet files, cookies, etc.
>
> So I ran Hijack This (2.04) and there were three lines at the top that
> referred to it. I "fixed" those. They are gone. Still can't get rid of
> the hijack.
>
> When I first open HJT I get this message about the hosts file not
> being accessible ( http://mewnlite.com/hosts.jpg ). Checked its
> properties in Windows Explorer - read only not checked. The hosts file
> is just the default windows hosts file.
>
> Now look at http://mewnlite.com/HJT.jpg . There's a zillion "file
> missing" entries. On a brand new computer. About the only thing I've
> done to that computer is uninstall Norton Internet Security and
> install MSE.
>
> I know this isn't a HijackThis forum and I don't intend to send that
> log anywhere for analysis since the computer is running fine except
> for the hijacked home page.
>
> I'm about half afraid to "fix" all those "file missing" entries.
> Lastly, does anyone have any experience with getting rid of that HP
> hijack?

Case closed. I finally figured out how to get rid of the hp-desktop.us
thing. Delete all temp files, cookies, and *also* check "Delete Browsing
History on Exit".
In Firefox clear "everything".
In further Googling I find that HijackThis does not play well the 64 bit
version of Windows 7 and that the "file missing" message is displayed when
the files are actually there. You'd think that would have been fixed as
long as 64 bit Windows 7 has been out.


--
--- Everybody has a right to my opinion. ---