Location bar searches are being re-directed - published solutions don't work
I had some sort of trojan on my computer, and it seems to have modified Firefox. Removing Firefox and re-installing did not fix the problem.
When I type an address in the location bar, I am re-directed to other sites, even though the address in the location bar looks correct. I tried the about:config settings on the Firefox support form, but that only works if I select Yahoo, rather than Google as the search engine. If I use "Re-set" to go back to Google, the problem re-occurs.
The value set by the re-set is:
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=
If I shorten this to http://www.google.com/search, then it works fine. Has the trojan written a new value into the default called up by the re-set? How can I fix this? Why is it still there if I un-install (even using Revo un-install, advanced, which I thought removed pretty much everything) Firefox? Do I still have a problem on my computer?
I tried Re-direct remover add-on as well. No luck
Thanks
All Replies (4)
You may still have leftovers from that infection.
Do a malware check with a few malware scan programs.
You need to use all programs because each detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of the database before doing a scan.
- http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
- http://www.superantispyware.com/ - SuperAntispyware
- http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Spybot Search & Destroy
- http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php - Ad-Aware Free
- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Windows Defender: Home Page
See also "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked and What to do when searches take you to the wrong search website
I've tried 5 scanners now (Kapersky, Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro, Windows Defender, and Telus Security). None of them come come up with anything.
Everything else seems to be working normally. Even the location bar searches seem fine on Google if I shorten the search address as above. Very strange.
Thanks anyway.
You can try "Reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults" on the Safe mode start window.
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile
There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins"
If that new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile (be careful not to copy corrupted files)
See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
Formatting the drive and re-installing everything has cured the problem. I did re-load my Firefox profile using MozBackup, and it still seems fine.
Not the easiest solution, but the only one that I found to work.
Thanks for the help.