MSN Homepage appears at bootup

Matt316 · 28 Jul 2018

Hi,

For several days now I have had the MSN homepage pop up every time I boot up. It appears to be initiated by a call to open the page http://www.msftconnecttest.com/redirect . MSN is not my home page and I don't want to see it. How can I stop it opening? I haven't had any updates (due mainly to the fact that, currently, my computer is unable to receive them).

There is an old thread here which suggests an answer using Malwarebytes AdwCleaner. This and other efforts have been taken, but no luck.

Matt

Caledon Ken · 28 Jul 2018

Hi Matt.

Is this offending task in Startup tab within task manager?

I would also check task scheduler, could have been placed their without your permission.

Saw you ran adwCleaner but have you their other product malwarebytes from malwarebytes.com

https://www.malwarebytes.com/

Finally I would use autoruns part of the sysinternal suite.

https://www.howtogeek.com/school/sys...s-pro/lesson6/

Be cautious with autoruns, it will do as you tell it.

Bree · 28 Jul 2018

Matt316 said:

For several days now I have had the MSN homepage pop up every time I boot up...

What browser does it appear in? Is it IE or Chrome? If so, you need to know that on a restart Windows version 1709 or later will restart apps that were left open when you last shut down. IE and Chrome can be restarted, Edge and Firefox can't.
on a restart Fall Creators Update reopens apps from before Solved - Page 9 - Windows 10 Forums

This 'auto-restart' behaviour can be turned off here...
Use sign-in info to auto finish after Update or Restart in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

Matt316 · 29 Jul 2018

CaledonKen:

The only items enabled in Start-up are CoreTemp ver 1.11, Windows Defender Icon, WordWeb. (And I've just noticed something interesting, CoreTemp is set to NOT start up with Windows - yet it's enabled at start up. I wonder if I need to uninstall this and see if that makes a difference.)

I'm not too familiar with Task Scheduler, but I can't see anything that would be doing this. Most things, like Google updates, etc. are disabled.

I tried running Malwarebytes first, but didn't get anything. Then ran Malwarebytes AdwCleaner, which found a small few. These were removed, but didn't help.

I tried running Autoruns, but quite frankly, there was so much to look at, it would take me a month of Sundays to workout what it was telling me. (I may end up having to do this, but a 'shortcut' would help. :) )

Bree:

It appears in IE11, which is my default browser. When I close down, I would normally have closed all applications down as habit. Certainly, by the time I do, this page has long gone. So if the restart were to bring it back it should not have brought back the MSN page (and MSN is not my home page).

Additionally, I immediately brought up the history, for today and found these entries:

Today:
msftconnectest (http://www.msftconnecttest.com)
redirect [http://www.msftconnecttest.com/redirect]
msn (MSN | Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Breaking News, and Latest Videos)
MSN UK: Latest news, weather, Hotmail sign in...

From clicking on the 'redirect' page, this brings up the MSN page. So this is probably the route. Something is initiating the msftconnecttest.com/redirect page.

Matt

Bree · 29 Jul 2018

Matt316 said:

Bree:
It appears in IE11, which is my default browser.... Something is initiating the msftconnecttest.com/redirect page.

I still like to use IE too, with 'frequent sites' as the start page. I find it's all too easy to click 'Enable my news feed' by accident - and all too difficult to turn it off again. I have to go into Internet settings and first set Tabs to open just the 'the new tab page', then set Start-up to 'start with home page', and finally click 'Use current' while the current page is a new tab. It looks like this when I'm done. Set yours like this and see if it stops it...

MSN Homepage appears at bootup-ie-settings-clean-start-up.png

Matt316 · 29 Jul 2018

The only difference with this is that the new tab is opened to 'Your first home page', which in my case is 'About:blank'.

Caledon Ken · 29 Jul 2018

IN IE11 I would clear all my browsing data. Then click on gear upper right and then manage add-ons. Check all categories. Finally reset browser by heading to Internet Options, Advance Tab.

Know your passwords before clearing all browsing data.

In terms of Autoruns there are no real short cuts. Things I would look at first are Logon, WinLogon, Boot, task scheduler and internet explorer.

You will also notice the pair of binoculars. Try searching mfstconnectest (check my spelling)

Matt316 · 29 Jul 2018

Out of curiosity, I tried changing the default browser to Firefox. Guess what? When I started the computer up just now, Firefox started with MSN! So It's something behind the browser, not the browser itself, I would say?

Matt

Caledon Ken · 29 Jul 2018

Can I asked what changed when this started?

Did you have any ISP services changes ? Installed any new AV software or changes to firewalls. Installation or change to VPN software / configuration? Installation or configuration to a proxy server?

I started reading about this and it seems to be a "normal" windows function, answers why AV don't see and neither would Autoruns (doesn't show Windows items by default) although yours manifests in it presenting a page.

Found this hack but I'm I'm not a huge supporter of registry hacks. That said might be a quick shot to the heart.

https://gal.vin/2017/01/12/windows-1...-com-at-login/

Can you check firewall rules and see if this activity is permitted?

Matt316 · 29 Jul 2018

The only two things that have changed in the past few weeks is the instillation of CoreTemp and Garmin Express. I have uninstalled CoreTemp today, so I will see if it happens tomorrow. If it does, I might uninstall Garmin Express. As far as I can recall, nothing else has changed, updated or been installed - as far as I'm aware!

Matt