Steps to take to remove the about:blank spyware

1) First, you need to get the about:blank page displayed, so open your Internet Explorer web browser.

2) If you have this spyware on your computer, then your browser will open to about:blank as expected.

3) Click "View" on the toolbar at the top, then click the "View Source" option.

4) Look for something like the following: res://%43%3a%5c%57%49%..... (or something like this). Copy the entire string, make sure you copy the ENTIRE string from start to end.

5) Now you need to translate this to the actual name. Many sites will do this for you. Go to http://www.simplelogic.com/Developer/URLDecode.asp and paste the string you copied into the box and press the "clean" button.

6) You will see a string and dll file name (that ends with dll). Go to that folder, its most likely located in your windows\system32 folder. Make sure you have your explorer set to show hidden files. Now simply rename the dll file. Reboot immediately. Problem solved.

NOTE: For experienced users, if you cannot find the file in your browser as listed in #3, this may be because there are several different about:blank spyware versions floating around, and you possibly may have gotten a different adware or spyware version of about blank. In this case, if you are familiar with the windows registry, go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows and then view AppInit_DLLs. Get the value from that key and this is your dll file that you need to rename, as specified in the removal instructions above. It basically allows you to skip the first 5 steps and go right to the rename step. You have to be a little more technical to use this method, as you need to be a little familiar with the registry and what that is, but you can find the about blank spyware dll module by going directly to this registry key. Make sure you have explorer set to show all hidden files, otherwise you may not see this when you look for it, but it should be in your c:\windows\system32 folder.