I was testing about 50 links which I had accumulated, testing each in turn to see if it was still there.
Several failed, some with bizarre effects like pop ups etc. Afrer one of these the computer seemed to slow down so I tried rebooting. Big problem. The home start page of my browser was now Global Finder.
I changed this back to my wanted home page. But to no avail. After a further reboot the problem came back and the computer was incredibly slow.
When I rebooted there was a message about a missing msinfo.exe program.
I realised that my computer had been interfered with by some malicious intruder.
I accessed Google and typed in Global Finder Virus
Brilliant, up come some good references:
Computing.net has a message forum with messages all about this problem, which is amazing since the problem was of very recent origin.
Anyway the good advice:
1. There is a special fix-it programme called cwshredder available from spywareinfo.com. I tried this and it first identified 12 objects that should not be there and 1 registry entry also identified as abnormal. After running the program all seemed OK.
2. Two other programs were mentioned Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy. You can get these free from download.com
The Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy programs were run.
Adaware cleaned out a number of cookies.
Spybot identified some remnant of Alexa and got rid of that.
All seems OK now - but you can never be sure.
Added: Aug 2004. Still Ok many months later - so the cure for the global finder did work.
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