TR/StartPage
TR/StartPage is a Trojan horse that will make unwanted changes to Internet Explorer homepage. TR/StartPage usually redirect Internet browser home page request to a web site it promotes. Aside from that, there are other several more reasons for creating a Trojan with this payload.
Home page is a user-defined web page that will load when starting an Internet browser. It is fully customizable to assign any address or URL depending on user’s preference. In the same manner, this area is susceptible to Trojan and other malware infection that has a purpose of engaging user to unsolicited web sites. Trojans can simplify the modification by means of minor codes that silently replaces user’s configuration.
Alias: Trojan StartPage
Damage Level: Low
Systems Affected: Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Windows Vista
Characteristics
In so many variants of Trojan Startpage, most of the victims experiences only minimal annoyances like simple home page redirect. Severity of Trojan’s effect cannot be asses by the infection itself, but rather what can be acquired when user’s browser is redirected to a malicious website. It can serve any content that can cause minor or devastating damages to visitor’s computer.
There are several reasons why Trojan StartPage modifies the start page of Internet browser. Here are some possible motives:
- To promote products, web sites or services
- To generate web traffic for an income-generating web site
- To redirect users to a site that hosts misleading applications that are associated with pay-per-install model.
Distribution
TR/StartPage spreads through a number of means ordinarily employs by other similar threats. There is also an observation that some malicious links will redirect victims to Trojan download page. These links will reach user via spam email messages, instant messaging application and malicious blogs that tackle most recent issues.
Trojan is likely to target most of Internet Explorer users. Author of this Trojan knows that majority of Internet surfers are leaning on this traditional browser ever since. Some user are even more susceptible by sticking to an old version of IE and do not mind upgrading the program to latest release.
How to Remove TR/StartPage
1. Reboot your computer in Safe Mode with Networking.
- Continue tapping F8 on your keyboard after turning on the computer.
- From the selections menu, select Safe Mode with Networking.
2. Connect to Internet and download SuperAntiSpyware here.
3. Install SAS with default configuration. It will prompt for update when installation has completed.
4. After installation and update, SuperAntiSpyware will open.
5. On main window, select Scan Type, choose Complete Scan.
6. Click on Scan your Computer…, this will give you options on which drive to scan.
7. On Scan Location, select c:\Fixed Drive.
8. Click on Start Complete Scan. This will begin the scanning process.
9. Scanning will take some time. Please be patient.8. When scanning is done it will display the Scan Summary.
10. On scanning Window, items detected are marked in check.
11. Click Next to remove infected items.
12. It will prompt you to reboot your computer. Click Yes to reboot.
13. After reboot. Open SuperAntiSpyware again. Go to the Main Menu and click Manage Quarantine.
14. Select all items that were quarantined and click Remove. This will completely remove all detected items on your computer.
15. Close the Window to exit SuperAntiSpyware.