Every time I click on the Firefox browser, I get Ad-aware instead of the Firefox home page; why? How do I delete it if I so choose?
Ad-aware page comes up instead of Firefox. I did not ask for it or download it knowingly. Why do I not just get the Firefox home page?
All Replies (4)
Hi Patrick,
check in the icon's properties, to see if there any link attached.
Hi, first please see How to set the home page. If the malware comes back, check your Firefox Desktop shortcut for corruption: Right click on it > Properties, and in Target, make sure there is no sign of anything other than Firefox. If there is, delete that part of it. Or if it's easier, you can just delete it and recreate a new shortcut. More: Wrong home page opens when I start Firefox - How to fix. Another thing you can do, is to search for the malware in your PC's search box and programs - look for any recently installed programs that you don't recognise, because it may be masquerading under a different name. What is search hijacking?.
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 (for more info, see this alternate TDSSKiller download page)
- AdwCleaner (for more info, see this alternate AdwCleaner download page)
- Hitman Pro
- ESET Online Scanner
Note that not all removal programs will detect all malware, so you may need to run several or all of them.
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!
Thanks for your reply. Much appreciated. Unfortunately, it does not appear when I right click on the Firefox icon. And my malware does not identify it. Yet every time I try to open Firefox I get Ad-aware. I don't want it, but none of the suggestions seem to work.
Patrick Solomon said
And my malware does not identify it. Yet every time I try to open Firefox I get Ad-aware.
This right here means your system is infected already and your software will not detect it. This will require a computer shop to find and remove it - if you aren't able to get rid of it.