Most of us have had this happen (especially Internet Explorer users). Our browser gets hijacked and the homepage button goes to some annoying search site. Sometimes the error pages even get re-routed. Sometimes resetting this is as easy as re-entering your desired homepage, but other times that would be futile because the spyware simply rewrites its own choice of homepage back to your configuration. You might want to try out a program called HiJack This!. It acts like a kind of firewall for your browser, preventing these kinds of programs from ever having the option to install themselves. The program has all sorts of options and tools you can use and not just to protect your homepage. It has an ignore list, a list of running processes, DLL’s, and a startup list. It does this because the program doesn’t target specific URLs but rather knows the tricks they use in order to hijack your browser. The program also creates backups as it goes to help you out if you paint yourself into a corner so to speak.

Check it out at http://merijn.org/downloads.html.