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Bing is taking over Firefox - auto starts on start, or grabs the home page if I start it - how do I stop this? Go to Safari?

Donald Scott
Donald Scott
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Every few months, Bing takes control of Firefox:

When I start the computer, Bing autostarts FF and then makes itself the home page.

If I quickly close FF - I am really upset about this Bing thing and will never use it, so I shut down the autostart FF - and then open FF myself, Bing will open as the home page.

When I check options Gmail is set as the home page. When I check bookmarks, there is nothing for Bing.

This is a pretty egregious MS malware program.

How do I stop this, and keep it from re-occurring? Note that I've already tried the resetting of FF, which means I must reinstall all extensions. That works but only for a few weeks. The Bing malware is back. How do I get rid of this, once and for all? Or could Mozilla have a legal chat with MS, since they are "grabbing" your software in the worst malware fashion.

I use an ASUS F502c. It came with Windows 8; I've upgraded that to 8.1

Thanks,

DMS

Every few months, Bing takes control of Firefox: When I start the computer, Bing autostarts FF and then makes itself the home page. If I quickly close FF - I am really upset about this Bing thing and will never use it, so I shut down the autostart FF - and then open FF myself, Bing will open as the home page. When I check options Gmail is set as the home page. When I check bookmarks, there is nothing for Bing. This is a pretty egregious MS malware program. How do I stop this, and keep it from re-occurring? Note that I've already tried the resetting of FF, which means I must reinstall all extensions. That works but only for a few weeks. The Bing malware is back. How do I get rid of this, once and for all? Or could Mozilla have a legal chat with MS, since they are "grabbing" your software in the worst malware fashion. I use an ASUS F502c. It came with Windows 8; I've upgraded that to 8.1 Thanks, DMS

All Replies (2)

Andrew
Andrew
  • Moderator
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Hello,

You can check for malware and/ or reset Firefox to solve this issue:

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

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

Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information.
Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions and some Preferences.

  • Open websites will not be saved in Firefox versions lower than 25.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

  1. Go to Firefox > Help > Troubleshooting Information.
  2. Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
  3. Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
  4. Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.

Further information can be found in the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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At this point, does Bing appear when you open a new window using Ctrl+n?

If no: check your program shortcut to see whether an address has been added to the "Target" line.

right-click > Properties > Shortcut tab > Target

It should be simply: 

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

If yes:' one of your extensions likely is overriding your home page setting.

Regarding Bing being pushed from an external source, I haven't heard of that before, but perhaps it's something only happening on Windows 8.1?