Help! (If you can!)

Every time I start my computer, my homepage sets itself to search-space.com (not my chosen homepage), and when I re-set it to my desired page, search-space re-establishes itself as my homepage every time I re-start.

This is not the only problem.
A quick Google search reveals that other people have experienced the same, and that I have one of the latest viruses (oh, joy!).
More worryingly, this bug has rendered me unable to open pages which use Java.

Any suggestions/offers of help?

It is indeed a common problem. This might help

Seems like it all comes down to CoolWebSearch, which comes in lots of variants. http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html explains a lot about the different appearances and the solutions. Java is mentioned as well.

A browser going to the wrong homepage is browser hijacking rather than a virus. This previous thread relates to it too. Mentioned there and in the links in the posts in this thread is CWShredder. This seems to be the most popular tool to use to get rid of the pest.

A program called HijackThis is good for analysing the files and Registry entries that are causing the hijacking. Some computer knowledge is needed to make sense of it and act on the information though.

Also installing RegistryProt should stop your browser being hijacked again.

Note: Clicking on the links above for CWShredder and HijackThis will start the downloads. Whilst these utilities are designed to be good for your computer, I think it would be best to read via Google what users have to say before running them.

When I try to click on the links provided by Tellywellies, my computer "freezes", rather annoyingly.
When I try to close the window, I get an alert telling me that "this program is not responding". I'm advised to click 'cancel', which has no effect; nothing I click will function.
This has happened to me a few times recently, and it is very trying indeed!

Mark, if you have access to another computer, you could try to download the CWShredder (the site I linked to in my previous post explains all about this program) from there. Put it on a floppy or CD and copy it onto your own pc. That way it might work, or at least that's what I read when searching for a solution to your problem.

By the way, I've changed the link in my previous post to make it easier to enter the URL manually, since it's now visible.

No, this is the only computer I have, apart from a TV internet service, which only provides the most basic of functions.
I am still perfectly able to function on this site, thank goodness, but to be quite honest, this machine really does need replacing, so maybe I'd best suffer in silence with the few problems I have until I get myself a new computer.

This happened to me before, when I was plagued by here4search.com, but I managed to remove that.
This one is obviously not gonna be as easy to shift.

It should be possible to sort out your existing computer even if that ultimately meant formatting the hard disk and reinstalling the software.

How old is the computer and what specification does it have? If you are not into fast gaming you don't really need a top spec one. What operating system is installed?

Windows 2000.
No, I certainly don't need anything "top spec", as I'm not into fast gaming!
I'll be getting a new machine early next year anyway, so hopefully this little irritation won't last much longer!

Try using another browser to download that stuff.

Update: Since I downloaded and ran a program called Ad-Aware, I was able to successfully run CWShredder, and my problems seem to have gone away (fingers crossed!).

I must confess, I know little about Ad-Aware, or what it does, but I understand from what I've read on other sites, two of the main troublemakers when it comes to hijacking are CoolWebSearch and Alexa.

Can anyone tell me anything about either of these?