Have a horrible malware hijacker in my Firefox, anti-malware (tried them all) got rid of it in other browsers, but not Firefox. Help? (Love Firefox best)
Using a combo of Norton, Spybot, Malwarebytes, and Hitman Pro got rid of this nasty malware in Internet Explorer and Opera (didn't really affect Opera much to begin with). It also messed up Chrome but I just un-installed Chrome, don't like it anyhow. Firefox is my favorite and now I feel crippled without it working right. It is very bad malware, puts multiple ads on pages that I know do not really have those ads. It opens multiple tabs going to all sorts of sites that I am sure the hacker is getting money for sending traffic to.
Chosen solution
Seems you did not even post this question from Firefox so we less information than we may otherwise have had. It seems reasonable to assume you still have adware or malware installed.
Standard practice is to scan with multiple and up to date tools. Please follow the suggestions under, and post back to let us know what you tried and what was reported or found by each tool.
Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.
You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:
- Microsoft Safety Scanner
- MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
- Anti-Rootkit Utility - TDSSKiller
- AdwCleaner (for more info, see this alternate AdwCleaner download page)
- Hitman Pro
- ESET Online Scanner
Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one. Windows 8 has antivirus built-in already.
Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.
Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!
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Chosen Solution
Seems you did not even post this question from Firefox so we less information than we may otherwise have had. It seems reasonable to assume you still have adware or malware installed.
Standard practice is to scan with multiple and up to date tools. Please follow the suggestions under, and post back to let us know what you tried and what was reported or found by each tool.
Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.
You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:
- Microsoft Safety Scanner
- MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
- Anti-Rootkit Utility - TDSSKiller
- AdwCleaner (for more info, see this alternate AdwCleaner download page)
- Hitman Pro
- ESET Online Scanner
Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one. Windows 8 has antivirus built-in already.
Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.
Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!
Thank you John99!
I had tried MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware, Anti-Rootkit Utility - TDSSKiller, Spybot, & Hitman Pro. None of those got the bug out of Firefox. So I started at the top of the list you posted, eliminating the ones I already tried. Microsoft Safety Scanner found nothing. Then I got to AdwCleaner - and that got it! Thank you John and thank you AdwCleaner. Everything appears clean and pristine now. Also I am able to assign Firebox as my default browser again. (This bug also blocked that.)
Yes, my first post was from Opera, my SECOND choice in browsers. Far and away my first choice is Firefox and baby, its back. :)
Modified by web4web
Glad it is fixed. Thanks for posting back.
Some of this adware is deliberately installed by some people and it is not strictly speaking a virus so some tools consider it to be ok. AdwCleaner specialises in finding adware.