Windows XP and I.E.

[Nitromax]

Not sure if I should be posting in this forum or the Internet Explorer forum, but here's the problem.

I have XP Pro and have two seperate sides set up....one for my wife and one for me. I.E. works fine on my side, but when I switch to hers, I.E. starts to load up and then just shuts down. It was working fine up until last night.

I had run Adaware the day before and found about 9 spywares on her side, but thats's par for the course as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure if deleting one of them corrupted it or not.

I also ran Hijack This last night and didn't see anything out of the ordinary...though I would think that anything in the startup would affect both sides (mine and hers) and not just one side.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

[digitalocksmith]

By seperate sides, do you mean a partitioned hard drive that you each boot into seperately or simply different user accounts?

Have you tried uninstalling, then re-installing IE?

Does the same problem occur when using another browser? ie FF

[Nitromax]

By seperate sides, do you mean a partitioned hard drive that you each boot into seperately or simply different user accounts?

Have you tried uninstalling, then re-installing IE?

Does the same problem occur when using another browser? ie FF

Just seperate user accounts.

I have yet to try re-installing I.E. The problem just started last night and I was going to try re-installing I.E. when I get home this afternoon. Though, I find it odd that it works on my account and not hers.

I have not tried another browser.

[DMR]

Though, I find it odd that it works on my account and not hers.

Not odd really; IE has plenty of user-specific components. You might want to start with clearing out her Cookies, Temp folder, Temporary Internet Files folder, and Recycle Bin.

[digitalocksmith]

Sounds like you gave the wife administrative rights to her user account which XP will do by default...you can manually set your choices to either admin, user or guest.
This will restrict the functionality of these accounts and provide greater security for your system if you limit those users whom are prone to contracting malware.
You mention that you discovered 9 spyware codes on your wifes user account, which you say is par for the course....this is not good.

I would be questioning how this malware is being contracted and taking measures to ensure its not repeated!
One method is to take away these admin rights in the user accounts!

When a user or administrator logs on with administrative rights, any programs that they run, such as browsers, e-mail clients, and instant messaging programs, also have administrative rights. If these programs activate malicious software, that malicious software can install itself, manipulate services such as antivirus programs, and even hide from the operating system. Users can run malicious software unintentionally and unknowingly, for example, by visiting a compromised Web site or by clicking a link in an e-mail message.

Malicious software poses numerous threats, from intercepting a user's logon credentials with a keystroke logger to achieving complete control over a computer or an entire network by using a rootkit. Malicious software can cause Web sites to become inaccessible, destroy or corrupt data, and reformat hard disks.

Anyway, i think you get the picture now........

Regards!!

[DMR]

If you'd like us to check your HijackThis log for abnormalities, post it in a new thread in our Viruses, Spyware, and other Nasties forum.