Alan -
I take it you are using a version of Internet Exploder?
Click on Tools|Internet Options.
On the "General" tab, check what your home page is set to -try using the "use blank" button. This means that when you open IE, it will just display a blank page, and not go haring off in the direction of the distributors home page. (Really pisses me off, that one...)
This may well stop the gateway appearing, don't know about the search engine, though.
Regards
P