You can check the target line in the Firefox desktop shortcut (right-click: Properties) to make sure that nothing is appended after the path to the Firefox program.

Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer. Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender:
  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware

Thank you for your help, I check the target line in the Firefox desktop shortcut (right-click: Properties) and found there was an appended after the path to the Firefox program. I deleted it and Foxfire opened perfect. However, the next time I started up my computer it was back. It keeps adding this http://www-search.net/?s=E97ztrpdu03TRS,dc38b92c-1edb-4601-8517-1578b65f18b5,&pi=1 I ran my Kaspersky but it didn't find anything, I tried running Windows Defender but it is deactivated due to my Kaspersky .

See also;

• http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-www-search-net-virus/

Thank you. It worked. I did all 5 steps from http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-www-search-net-virus/ They were easy to follow and removed everything I couldn't find. Thank you again!!!

d812b said

How do I stop Bing from opening everytime I start FireFox, open a new window or tab in FireFox? When FireFox starts I have my options set to open with my homepage.

The URL setting on new tab opening can be found in two places. I'm assuming that you are using Windows 7 or 8 installed on the C: drive and Firefox version 34 or newer.

You need to open Windows Explorer (or Computer from Start Menu) and go to following location:

C:\Users\YourProfileName\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

where YourProfileName is the name of your local Windows or Active Directory user account.

Inside this folder you'll find another sub-folder that will be called qzreq7dr.default or something similar with .default at the end of the folder name. Open this folder and find following two files:

• prefs.js
• user.js

Don't worry if you can't find user.js I'll explain that in a minute. Please close your Firefox web Browser and open prefs.js using Notepad or similar text editor. Scroll it down until you find following line:

user_pref("browser.newtab.url", "HERE IS BING URL");

you'll find your annoying BING URL between the quotation marks. Please delete the URL from the user preference setting. Now your line should look exactly like this:

user_pref("browser.newtab.url", "");

this will open a blank tab every time you click the new tab button. You can also enter another URL if you want your new tab to open a website rather than be blank, but for now let's leave it blank and test it.

Save the changes you've made to prefs.js and run Firefox. Open new tab. Working? If yes, then it's sorted. No? Still see the BING website? Here is what to do next.

If the Bing website still showing on each new tab go back to the folder with prefs.js file. Right click prefs.js and select "Properties". On the "General" tab select "Read Only" option and then click "Apply" and OK to close the window.

Open the prefs.js file in Notepad and change the line again so it be user_pref("browser.newtab.url", ""); without Bing URL.

Start Firefox and test it. Working? Yeeeah! Well not quite. Close the Firefox and go back to the folder with prefs.js, you'll find few new files like prefs1.js prefs2.js ... This may be because something that is putting the Bing URL back to user_pref("browser.newtab.url", ""); setting is trying to overwrite the prefs,js file but it cannot as you've set it up as read only. Please remove the "read only" restriction from the prefs.js properties.

The thing that is making changes to prefs.js may be a command inside user.js (the file I've mentioned at the beginning of this post) or a malware, Firefox add-on or a third-party application.

If the user.js exists please rename it to user.js.old. Open Notepad or other text editor and enter (copy/paste) following code:

user_pref("browser.newtab.url", "");

now save it as user.js

(please make sure that your text editor won't save it with the .txt file extension as it won't work. You may want to remove tick from the following Windows setting: Control Panel/Folder Options/View (2nd tab)/Hide extensions for known file types to ensure that file extension is always what you want it to be. )

Run the Firefox and test it again. Working? It should be fine now as user.js overwrites prefs.js just before the Firefox start, so even if something is making changes to the prefs.js your user.js will change it back to what you want it to be. Controlling Firefox settings using user.js is also very handy for the Firefox deployment in AD as you can use GPO to set up home page, tool bars, proxy etc. but that's a different story.

So, if the new tab is opening without Bing it's time to run malware and AV system scan to ensure that your Windows is not infected. I'm personally using Malwarebytes and Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool. Both tools are free and both scan your system for different threats, just set them up for deepest scan and leave it running for all local drives over the night as it will take a good few hours to scan everything.

I hope that helps. Good luck.