Help DU Techies! Computer Virus Question

[Kathy in Cambridge]

I have a wireless network but I'm behind a firewall and all my virus definitions are updated. I recently downloaded Earthlink for dial-up service when I'm down at my beach house and used it twice this week. I just got home and logged on and all my bookmarks are gone! Is this the result of a virus?

Thanks,
RR

[Kellanved]

1. IMHO no

There are several possible reasons for vanishing bookmarks (for exapmple accidentally moving them in another directory or using another Browser).
No virus that I know of does such a thing.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

3. How do I find them again??

All my political bookmarks-more importantly, all my shopping bookmarks!!

[LincolnMcGrath]

2. AND from the land of lincoln

why has my search window taken over by search-it-now?

[Old and In the Way]

4. Sounds like one of those malware programs has hijacked your search engine.

check your program's file in "Add/Remove Programs"...you can remove it there, if you can find it.

[LincolnMcGrath]

10. I dont see it

Are utilities like Unclean easier and more thorough than the add/remove from XP Pro?
AdAware doesnt remove it.(freeversion)
Norton Live update scan does nothing.

[Bossy Monkey]

11. HijackThis will take care of that, and is free

It returns a bunch of results, some of which might be changes you made yourself or that some more or less respectable program has made. It takes a bit of reading, but the program tells you which items can safely be removed. I'd tell you where I got it, but I forget. Try googling HijackThis (note the lack of space between words). As I recall, it's little and it's quick.

[LincolnMcGrath]

12. Thank You I`ll give it a try.

[EV1Ltimm]

5. are you on windows 2000?

you might be logged in under a different profile...

or earthlink might have reinstalled IE (powered by earthlink now) and somehow overwritten your favorites.

but who knows in this world gone mad...

[Kathy in Cambridge]

7. Thanks-I have Windows XP

I guess I can search to see if my old favorites are in a folder somewhere on my hard drive.

[madfloridian]

6. Sounds like spyware.

Spybot or AdAware will do good jobs. Both are free.

[TrogL]

8. do a search/find

for bookmark.htm

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

9. Do a search of your hard drive for

*.url

IE does not use bookmark.htm anymore-- each "favorite" is saved to a separate .url file in the Favorites folder. Since they are text files, the entire folder fits nicely on a floppy, in case you want to go into Windows Explorer and drag the folder to drive A for backup purposes (should be done as new favorites are added).

The default path to your Favorites folder in Win2000 or XP is: C:\Documents And Settings\ (Your account name) \Favorites

Windows does the disappearing file trick for various reasons, none of them good. It could be accidental, spyware, viral, etc. Do a complete system check and virus scan immediately, after making certain your scanner has the latest definitions installed.