can anyone giv me the solution...?

Do a malware check with some malware scanning programs.
You need to scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• http://www.superantispyware.com/ - SuperAntispyware
• http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Windows Defender: Home Page
• http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Spybot Search & Destroy
• http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php - Ad-Aware Free

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Hi cor-el,

Many thanks for your suggestions. I have tried all of them but am still getting the page redirects. Sometimes FireFox warns me that the redirect has been requested but at other times the redirect just happens across 3 0r 4 pages at once. Any other thoughts would be much appreciated.

At least your suggestions have cleared a lot of crap out of my machine I didn't know was there.

Kind Regards

Looks like I will be stopping use of FireFox as I cannot get rid if this ridiculous youtubedownloader. Unfortunately no one seems to know how to stop it. I tried cor-el suggestions, all of them, with the latest updates, but nothing seems to stop it. I have enjoyed using FireFox but now it looks like I will be forced to a competitor all because some unprincipled people attempt to make me use their software. If it was legitimate then it would not be hidden away somewhere on my computer.

The problem is due to the add-on/extensions Youtube Downloader on Firefox.

You can download and install it and still run the program from your Desktop or All Programs toolbar BUT if you also install it at your Toolbar it will lead your tabs & etc. to auto search for "http://search.youtubedownloader.org/?f".

To avoid this annoyance. Just simply uninstall it from your Firefox Tool bar by clicking: Tools >> Add-Ons >> Select Youtube Downloader 3.8 or whatever version and click Uninstall

Restart your Firefox and test it e.g. press Tab, new tab and search and etc. It won't lead to "http://search.youtubedownloader.org/?f" again.

But don't worry you can still download videos from youtube by copying the URL/link/shared link to the Youtube Downloader program and run it off from your Desktop or All Programs instead of directly from your Firefox Toolbar.

Hi jotsdots, Many thanks for your suggestion. There is no extension/addin that indicates anything to do with the youtubedownloader but there is one call SEARCH RESULTS OPTIMIZATOR 8.17. A search revealed that this could well be the culprit. It seems that this is downloaded when someone (my son) downloaded the youtubedownloader and, when I uninstalled the downloader this extension is left in FireFox. It can only be disabled not uninstalled but my search revealed that this may be sufficient. I will test this for a couple of days and will then post my results. Regards

Bule,

You really should set up a separate Logon User Account with limited privileges in WinXP for your son. With his own LUA, whatever garbage your son happens to install in "his" version of Firefox, it won't affect your own version of Firefox - to a large extent.

Also, you'll have a lot more privacy for your own activities by your son not having access to your account and saved files, as long as he doesn't have Administrator privileges to the file system.

Been a couple of days now and no sign of the 'Custom Search' so it looks like the disabling of the 'Optimizator' was successful. I also deleted the addon using FireFox Safe mode.

I used malwarebytes only and it fixed the problem.

If you believe you have deleted everything, find no malware, and you are still being redirected to this lousy site, simply type about:config in Firefox, click the button saying you'll be careful, type "keyword", no quotes in the filter line and there you will see the default keyword.url. Right click on it and select Modify, replace the url with http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q= and you are done. I've suffered with this problem for so long without finding the answer that it really annoys me it is so easy. - By the way, the keyword.url may not have the address of the page that keeps displaying, but that's because this url is redirecting to it.

hey there,

I guess im having the same problem as u all the thing is i just want google back as my homepage but downloading that free youtubedownloader stuffed it all up can someone pls help me as i am not a pc freak altho i wish i was lol please hlp

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY I FOUND A SOLUTION So, here is the solution:- 1.Download this trial Revo Uninstaller 2.Install, and launch it. 3.Uninstall the YouTube Downloader Toolbar by Spigot

IT REALLY WORKS!!!!