My Dad called last night and said his computer was locked up. The CPU use was at 100%. I asked what he was doing and he said that there was a Windows update notification and he was downloading the updates. I told him to just leave it alone and let it finish before doing any more clicking. A few hours later he said it was still at 100%, then while we were on the phone it started bouncing down to a few % and back up to 100%. I said to just leave it on for the night and let it finish. It turns out that he had shut down a few times before calling me thinking the computer was acting up so he kept rebooting. Today he goes in to his office and checks the computer, CPU use is down and so he reboots. He tries to go online and the computer locks up again, and his Internet Explorer looks different. The icon in the quick start tray has changed and there are two of the same new icons in there. He tells me it says it is IE7 now. But it will not run, it locks as soon as it opens.

When I go to Windows update there is no option for downloading IE7 as an update. I've received no new update notifications on any of our machines about an IE update.

Meanwhile his Spybot Teatimer is putting up notices about registry changes and search assistant changes. I asked him how he got to the windows updates and he says that a window popped up saying there was an important Windows update with an option to "Run" or "Download" and he chose "Run" (he says the yellow shield was present in the system tray).

Did he get Hijacked for a fake Windows update? IE7 is not an automatic update, right?

The quick start icon properties point to the C:/Programfiles/Internet Explorer/iexplore (not iexplore.exe, and in the Internet Explorer folder the icon for IE also says just iexplore without the .exe. The folder view is set to show the extensions)

Has anyone else run into this?

Was this an actual Windows update/download or a fake?

Adding to the problem is that when they changed from Ameritech/SBC DSL to the newer SBC/ATT/Yahoo DSL they sent him a disk and said he had to install it to use their new DSL service (this was a few years ago) and so his IE6 was replaced with an AT&T/Yahoo branded version. So I'm wondering if it was indeed a real windows update could the branded browser version have conflicted with the update? But like I said I've received no notices of the IE7 beta as a Windows Automatic update on any of my systems.

Maybe ask him to start using firefox before the IE problem is fix.

IE7 won't be an automatic update until it gets released. its still in beta.

//krunk (^_^x)

I haven't gotten an update notification for IE7 on any of my machines...

Did you run adaware and all the other progs?

No, I had to run out t town. I'm going to call him back now and start the process going.

It's still pre-release, but it is not in beta any longer. They cut RC1 and are making it avaialble at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/default.mspx

With Windows Update there's an advanced setting to "Show beta products and related updates" which offers pre-release beta software as they become available.

Go to the Windows Update website at http://update.microsoft.com and click on the Change Settings link in the left column. I'll bet there's a checkmark next to "Show beta products and related updates".

Thanks Alan, I'll check that with him tomorrow.

I just got done getting his system back and working normally. I can't be sure but I think that the AT&T/Yahoo branded IE browser had something to do with the failed install of IE7-RC1. After we finished and ran HiJackThis and removed a bunch of entries his IE6 (still branded) was back and working.

The only remaining problem is that each time he reboots, his printer spits out one page that he was unable to print earlier after the failed IE7 install from MS Excel. There are no jobs pending in the print spooler, but if he reboots it will still spit it out. I'm hoping that in the morning if he opens Excel and tells it to print it again from within the program it will stop this from happening.

On a side note, what is the easiest way to get rid of the Yahoo branded IE6 and install the regular MS IE6? (I'll have to be helping him by phone so it has to be easy enough to do without me being able to see everything).

Dad's system is working better than it has been in a while he says. We checked on the "Show Beta Products" setting today, but it was not checked. I still have no idea how he got it to download and install.


Any help on getting rid of the branded browser easily?

Try this (at your own risk):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie/releasenotes/default.aspx

Thanks, but no. I don't think I want to have him use IE7, at least not until I have some experience with it first. I just want to get rid of the branded IE6 and then install the regular MS version of IE6 from the MS download page. I did it for him once before when he had the SBC branded version on his machine but I was there in person and I remember it being a drawn out process to get rid of it all so I could do a fresh MS version install. Then when SBC became AT&T they sent him a CD that said all former SBC DSL users would have to run in order to use the AT&T/Yahoo DSL service (that is pure bunk, but he didn't know any better so he installed it). It gets frustrating sometimes when trying to help him via phone because the branded browser does some things differently from the MS version, like the way it handles Favorites and direct entry of website addresses.

OK, I'm confused. From the OP it seems like he has IE7 installed right now. That link includes instructions to remove IE7.

EDit: Oh, I see. I missed post #8.