Hoping someone may be able to help me with this.

For a couple weeks now I have had something 'take over' my home screen and search engine.

I cant find it in the downloaded programs to remove it either and apparently Spybot doesn't recognise it as something bad either. But it is annoying. I have tried to change my homepage a few times but it keeps defaulting back to it.

smart web search

Keeps over-riding Google even - whether because it is powered by Google I don't know.

How do I get rid of it?

This might be useful to you http://www.microsoft.com/security/resou ... hatis.aspx

Thank you Erisian

Current in depth information here,
Remove Smart Web Search (Removal Guide)

I didn't read all the fix information but it looks like 'Smart Web Search' is annoying more than malicious.
Good luck.

EDIT,
Here's another take,
Remove Smart Web Search

Sent you a PM with the method I used to solve this same problem on a friends laptop recently.
As Odinbc mentioned, it is a PUP not malicious just annoying.

There is a program called Junkware Removal Tool -- JRT for short -- that can take care of a lot of PUPs in one swell foop. I've used it on some badly messed-up machines that could hardly open a browser because of all the toolbars, homepage hijacks, and redirects. It's very effective and safe.

Download it from thisisudax
(dot)
org (forum is giving me a hard time about URLs)

Matera,
Now that you have made 5 posts, you will no longer have issues with posting URL's.
It is one of the defensive measures to site uses to stop spammers signing up and posting their spam.

Thank you all for replies. I am a firefox user. Didn't add this little bit of information sorry. Didn't think to. Help forum asks but this doesn't. I didn't want to ask this question there as it wasn't a gimp problem.

I know a win7 user where these pesky 'helpful additions' are commonplace.

This might/might not work

First (if you have not already done so), back up your bookmarks
Do you know all your saved passwords? just in case.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ex ... r-transfer

then in the Firefox help menu select 'troubleshooting information' then 'reset Firefox'



best of luck

The info from fluffy and my links should give you a grasp.

Here's a tip:
Install WOT in your favourite browser.
The bad guys will post a (NOT) fix for your (might be a) virus or malicious software.
If you search Google you might also see their "so called fix' link.
With WOT in your browser you will be able to see the bad links.
WOT is very helpful when you try to download anything from Google or other search engines.

Example,

Thankyou guys, it's gone!

Get her a lappy for Xmas so she won't do that again.