What three checkboxes were those?! Have you tried shutting down and restarting Windows since this problem occurred? Changing settings in Firefox should not affect any icons on your desktop other than possibly changing your default browser (affecting HTML files, shortcuts to websites, possibly PDFs). ---- And since you were "infected" with Ask, there's probably more. I suggest: <p>(1) Open the Windows <strong>Control Panel</strong>, Uninstall a Program.</p> <p>After the list loads, click the "Installed on" column heading to group the infections, I mean, additions, by date. This can help in smoking out undisclosed bundle items that snuck in with some software you agreed to install. <em>Be suspicious of everything you do not recognize/remember, as malware often uses important or innocent sounding names to discourage you from removing it.</em></p> <p>Take out as much trash as possible here. If you're not sure, feel free to post program names or a screenshot of the list.</p> <p>(2) Open Firefox's <strong>Add-ons page</strong> using either:</p> <ul> <li>Ctrl+Shift+a (Mac: Command+Shift+a)</li> <li>"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) &gt; Add-ons</li> <li>in the Windows "Run" dialog, type or paste<br>firefox.exe "about:addons"</li> </ul> <p>In the left column, click <strong>Extensions</strong>. Then, if in doubt, disable (or Remove, if possible) unrecognized and unwanted extensions. <em>All extensions are optional; the troublemaker might not be obvious from its name.</em></p> <p>(3) You can search for remaining issues with the <strong>scanning/cleaning tools</strong> listed in this support article: [[Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware]]. These on-demand scanners are free and take considerable time to run. If they finish quickly and especially if they require payment, you may have a serious infection. I suggest the specialized forums listed in the article in that case.</p> Hopefully that will flush anything on your system and in your Firefox that could be a problem.