search engine changed

the watchman

Hi all,
I wanted to put some youtube videos onto a dvd and went here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ssrt7pqNmI

and I followed instructions and dowloaded the two free softwares mentioned.

I have just noticed I have lost my google search engine altogether. Instead 'searchqu.com/415' comes up.

When i click the button up on the right where my search engines were it says that I don't have access.

Could do with some help pretty fast here. Bit worried too I can tell you.:eek:
Attached is copy of new search engine page..yuk!

Windows XP.

Thanks for reading.

tricky D

http://deletemalware.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-remove-searchqu-uninstall-guide.html

or search for 'searchqu removal' if you can

the watchman

Thanks for quick reply. I will click on link. I daren't even use that search engine.
Is there a lot more i should be worried about. will get gack in a mo.
Thanks

yoyo

the watchman wrote: »

Thanks for quick reply. I will click on link. I daren't even use that search engine.
Is there a lot more i should be worried about. will get gack in a mo.
Thanks

Just type www.google.ie into the address bar (long one at the top) ingoring the malware crap, I wouldn't worry too much about using the search engine, except your probably giving the as*hole who infected your system affiliate money so I would avoid using it on principle of that,

Nick

tricky D

Yup, unlikely to be malware, but nevertheless you'd do no harm to download MalwareBytes Antimalware (free) and give your system a scan. Scanning once a week with that would be a good idea too.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam-download.php

the watchman

Hi lads,

Appreciate the help very much.
Have read the removal instrutions and still very aprehesive about what to do for the best. (I'm not really a tech head but do try).That registry stuff scares me.
Also now have a Facebook icon on desktop. I never use facebook and want nothing to do with it.......
Not rushing into it yet and was just wondering if going to system restore and restoring the computer to an earlier state (never done that before either) might be easier. I can back up any work in 'my docs' before I do it.

Either way when and if! its sorted will it be safe to use the freeware afterwards...I'm going to be back on the fags with this!!!:cool:

I do appreciate the comments.

Thanks for your help.

the watchman

Ok, read the instructions again and it seems this bit Remove Searchqu files and associated registry values manually (Optional)

I don't have to do if I use the various dialog boxes in IE and Firefox. Not quite so scary!.
Heres the plan>>>.
Run Malwarebytes.
Try the removal of unwanted search engine and home page etc.
And if it don't work maybe go for the system restore.
What do you think lads...tomorrow morning looks a better time to start also.:cool:

the watchman

Monday morning.
Ran Malwarebytes last night no problems. Thats all I did.
During the night I have Spybot S+D set for automatic scans.

This morning I woke up to a frozen screen showing 'welcome to windows' it had been trying to restart. Nothing at all responding. Had to switch off mains supply.

Switched back on and booted up. As I expected Spybot showing registry changes with choice of 'allow or deny'. see screen shot.
For the moment I have decided to do nothing and leave the boxes at the side of the screen for a while.
However my thinking is If I deny all changes would that solve my problems perhaps or will I still have to go and make those changes in IE and Firefox.:rolleyes:
All thoughts welcome.

the watchman

I have got things back to normal with home page and default search. Still a facebook icon which I will attempt to remove via the registry when I get the confidence up also this error mess:
Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.
Apache Server at searchdyn.search-results.com Port 8080

which appears when clicking the search button with magnifying glass at top right of page. Guess thats a registry job as well.


just to say thanks, I appreciated the help.:pac:

PS. hope theres no other nasty surprises when I eventually get around to using the free software!

croo

Personally I would never installed free software unless it was extremely well know - skype as an example.

But if it is "open source" then you can either check the code or if you are not a coder look to see who is using it - if there is a community around the software or just 1 guy/company. If there is a good community the chances that one person could slip in something that would be a security concern - intentionally or otherwise - is greatly reduced.

Of course for linux users this issue is greatly reduced because the core distribution creators do all this before they put the code in their repositories!

My advice is stick to open source

Hal Emmerich

DVDFlick is OK.

That other one, I was typing it into google, KOYOTESO...is as far as I got before Google suggestion added on "Malware" so I'm assuming that's what infected your machine.

It's listed on Cnet though which suprises me, I'd always assumed if it was listed there it was OK.

the watchman

I haven't used the ones that changed my Browser yet.
Have tried ZamZar. It had great reviews. Dead easy to use no ads no pop ups and no software downloads. Unfortunately all file dowloads failed.
Now looking for Youtube downloader version 2.1.6 (only version that works with yourube now) but can't find it anywhere...its always a later version on offer.

But!!!!begining to think my internet '3' conection is too slow for these files to come down successfully. 100-200kbs very slow.:mad:

Thanks for your thoughts.

Searchqu

Hi the watchman,

My name is John, and I'm a member of the Searchqu Support Team. I'm here to help
As I understand, the problem you are facing is the inability to change back your homepage to what it originally was.

First - it's important to note: Searchqu is not a virus, nor is it a malware (no info is being collected, nothing harmful is done to your PC). Don't worry

In general, once changing the homepage manually inside your browser, Searchqu should no longer have any effect and the browser should keep your manually-set homepage address (there's no need to uninstall the browser, look for a spyware remover, etc.).

Please try rebooting your PC, open your browser, enter your browser's options and manually change the homepage to your preference (if you're not sure how, I'll walk you through). Now make sure the homepage is indeed set. Now close the browser, wait about 20 seconds, then reopen. Is the homepage set on Searchqu again?

Johnboy1951

the watchman wrote: »

Hi all,
I wanted to put some youtube videos onto a dvd and went here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ssrt7pqNmI

and I followed instructions and dowloaded the two free softwares mentioned.

Those instructions appear very odd to me ...... I cannot fathom why anyone would convert FLV files to MP4 files before converting them to MPEG files for the DVD.

The less converting and recoding is done the better, IMO.

Is there no software for Win which will convert FLV files to DVD ?

.... seems there is ...... DVDStlyer and it is open source as well as free .... I have used it in Linux with great success ....


http://www.dvdstyler.org/en/

the watchman

Searchqu wrote: »

Hi the watchman,

My name is John, and I'm a member of the Searchqu Support Team. I'm here to help
As I understand, the problem you are facing is the inability to change back your homepage to what it originally was.

First - it's important to note: Searchqu is not a virus, nor is it a malware (no info is being collected, nothing harmful is done to your PC). Don't worry

In general, once changing the homepage manually inside your browser, Searchqu should no longer have any effect and the browser should keep your manually-set homepage address (there's no need to uninstall the browser, look for a spyware remover, etc.).

Please try rebooting your PC, open your browser, enter your browser's options and manually change the homepage to your preference (if you're not sure how, I'll walk you through). Now make sure the homepage is indeed set. Now close the browser, wait about 20 seconds, then reopen. Is the homepage set on Searchqu again?

Sorry I must have missed this post earlier. Thank you for responding but I have already removed the searchqu. The only thing I've left to when I feel up to it is remove the Facebook Icon that was installed on my desktop. ( I don't use Facebook).
Thanks again.

the watchman

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Those instructions appear very odd to me ...... I cannot fathom why anyone would convert FLV files to MP4 files before converting them to MPEG files for the DVD.

The less converting and recoding is done the better, IMO.

Is there no software for Win which will convert FLV files to DVD ?

.... seems there is ...... DVDStlyer and it is open source as well as free .... I have used it in Linux with great success ....


http://www.dvdstyler.org/en/

Thank you for that. May try it When I have the notion to try again. Will google the life out of it before I do download and use it. Won't make the same mistake again. Was under pressure last time and I broke all my own rules regarding safety on the net. I still feel that my ulta slow connection doesn't help things.
Thanks again.

Searchqu

the watchman wrote: »

Sorry I must have missed this post earlier. Thank you for responding but I have already removed the searchqu. The only thing I've left to when I feel up to it is remove the Facebook Icon that was installed on my desktop. ( I don't use Facebook).
Thanks again.

It's my pleasure to help, and I'm glad everything is OK now.