Yahoo appears to be hijacking my firefox browser.
In April, robertsmit7363 posted a problem with yahoo hijacking the firefox browser. I am having the same exact problem. Don't really understand his "fix."
I tried to change my default browser to firefox.
Then I tried to re-install firefox, and it told me I had to close firefox before running the setup. The "firefox" page that was open only had yahoo icons everywhere, and the main yahoo news page for the start up.
I closed it and ran the setup and when it asked to open/launch firefox, I said yes and it opened the same yahoo page (with the news).
I do not want this, I want my firefox page back.
I am nervous because some stupid browser hijacker (Fantastigames) got my desktop computer and now it is so unstable it won't load windows half the time on startup (which happened when I tried to delete that hijacker). This yahoo problem is on my laptop, and I don't want it to start acting crazy too.
Any help is greatly appreciated. I will gladly take a screen shot of the way yahoo looks and post it, if someone tells me how to do it.
I got that Fantastigames when my kids downloaded something innocent and it was piggy-backing anonymously on the download--that's what some sites said about it when I googled the problem. I didn't install the browser troubleshooter because I'm wary about downloading things without being able to scan them first. Is there a way to do that?
(Fyi, I do have virus software installed, the free version of Avast!)
Thanks a bunch!
All Replies (3)
The Troubleshooter gathers some information that you can post manually instead. Open the Troubleshooting Information page using any of the following methods:
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
- Help > Troubleshooting Information
- type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
In the upper left corner, click the Copy Text to Clipboard button and then you can paste into a reply.
Meanwhile, could you:
(1) Visit the Windows Control Panel, Uninstall a Program and click the "Installed on" column heading to group by date. I suspect you will find additional unwanted and probably undisclosed bundle items (AKA garbage) that snuck in with some free software. Remove what you can.
(2) Scan using some of the effective free cleanup programs listed in our support article: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware.
Note: don't remove places.sqlite or bookmarks-2014....json files that the cleaning programs may recognize as having history or bookmarks of bad sites because this could clear all your bookmarks.
(3) Start Firefox back up again and check for any lingering problem extensions on the Add-ons page. Either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
In the left column, click Extensions. Then you can disable all nonessential or unrecognized extensions.
Usually a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.
(4) Finally, to reset your home page, search service, and new tab page to their defaults, you can use this one-click solution: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/ad.../searchreset/. If you prefer to do that by hand, we can post the steps.
Does that clear it up?
Tell your kids that whenever they want to download something, they should wait for you. This includes installing a program.
It’s very sad, but many of the software down-loaders / installers will trick you into installing not only their program, but other programs as well. You have heard of the fine print in shady contracts, right? Well, some installers you need to look at the itsy bitsy teeny weeny fine print. You are thinking you are giving the installer permission to install the program you want by using the recommended option. But if you use the Manual Option Instead, you discover all kinds of stuff that you do not even know what it is or what it does. From now on, everyone needs to Use The Manual Option to put a stop to this.