It sounds like malware/adware that is installed on your computer. It may be seen as a Firefox plugin or it may not. It should be shown in your program listing (unless it is well disguised and hidden malware).

There are two or three steps involved.

1. Find and uninstall the unwanted software using the Windows control panel
2. Scan with multple tools to find malware, and if necessary obtain specialist advice in removing it
3. Reset the changes to Firefox, there is an add-on that will do this for you.

See

• Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page
• Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

Please post back with how you get on.

Standard reply about toolbars

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button (Tools menu in Windows XP), and then click Add-ons. The Add-ons Manager tab will open.
2. In the Add-ons Manager tab, select the Extensions panel.
3. Select the toolbar you wish to remove.
4. Click the remove button.
5. Click "Restart now" if it pops up. Your tabs will be saved and restored after the restart.

After Firefox restarts, install the Search Reset Tool. This will remove the rest of the traces of this program from your Firefox.

And Malware

You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

• Microsoft Safety Scanner
• MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
• TDSSKiller - AntiRootkit Utility

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.

Thank you John 99 for your prompt reply, I followed your advise and found how to remove the Search Browsing tool bar. I then bought the MalwarebBytes program and ran it. It found 3 malwares and removed them however, sadly, the problem remains as I still have the stupid web page. I've been using PC Tools Spyware for many years without this problem. Is there a better spyware program that you would suggest? I guess I will have to take it into the 'sharks' and get them to do something. It goes against the grain to do this as I seem to pay a small fortune and often than not the job is pretty shoddy.

You can check for problems with preferences and try to rename or delete the prefs.js file and possible numbered prefs-##.js files and a possible user.js file to reset all prefs to the default values.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Resetting_preferences

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

• Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window or otherwise make changes.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox