Check here

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/pop-blocker-settings-exceptions-troubleshooting

Hey man, thanks for the quick reply.

I check the site and it did not solve the problem. It might be that the sponsorship tab is not actually a pop-up.

I've attached a couple of pictures to show what it looks like. The tab opens by itself when I'm browsing, and it sometimes takes me a while to notice when it opens.

I'm running a couple of scans on my computer just to make sure it's not malware or anything like that. I'll get back to you soon to see if that is the case.

I'm having exactly the same problem, here's my screenshot. This just loads every time I open FF! It's very annoying and recently created a problem when it forced the install of a search engine that I couldn't shut up; i.e. music that wouldn't stop even when I closed the tab!

Hi mikecox, there actually is a separate thread -- still unsolved -- about the channel157 news page. You probably want to check this out: When I am finished an have shut down Fire Fox, I come back to my computer and I find that Fire Fox is open, and a random URL page is open.

Could you check the following two places to see whether you have any unexpected URLs:

• Home page setting. Since you have have multiple tabs open, check for any additional sites here. This article has more info: How to set the home page.

• Firefox shortcut. Malware can alter the startup by adding URLs to the "target". (E.g., Qvo6)

I have the same problem: a Firefox window with a tab that says "Sponsorship" opens spontaneously, even when I'm not running Firefox! It wants to open the url "http://tv.channel157news.com/news/?ilmernzkvtazn=00238B385C6086C7&pu=&s=D-firefox&nm=ilmernzkvtazn&t=". I don't know what's at that location because I squash Sponsorship as soon as it appears.

My Firefox home page has not been hijacked; I have Adblock Plus 2.3.1 and Adblock Plus Pop-up Addition 0.8. According to my Firefox and Adblock settings I shouldn't be seeing this popup. In any case, I believe there is malware someplace in my system that causes the problem. I've run a full system scan with up-to-date Norton Internet security which reported no problems.

Today Firefox started on its own with the Sponsorship tab. I tried troubleshooting as far as I could: I ran Windows Task Manager and found "Sponsorship - Mozilla Firefox" listed as a running application. Unfortunately, Task Manager said access was denied for examining the command line, creating a dump file, or learning whether data execution was enabled or disabled.

I would appreciate any information about how to discover how Firefox is being started. Are there any command-line utilities I could use?

System details:

Windows Vista Ultimate version 6.0, build 6002, SP 2, running Firefox 22.0 on an HP Pavilion dv5 laptop.

Hi kruppml, you may want to supplement your Norton scan with some others. Many free scanners are listed in the other thread I linked above.

The fact that the pages opens by itself definitely suggests external activity. To see whether it is Firefox specific or simply uses the default browser, you could change your default browser to Internet Explorer (preferably IE9 or IE10, which are more secure than the older versions) before leaving your PC idle to see whether that page opens in IE. (Make Internet Explorer your default browser - version selection on the right side of the page)

Can you post a screenshot of the add-ons that you have installed? I used to have this problem, but it was an add-on that I had installed that was causing the problem.

Here is the add-on screen shot. But there doesn't appear; to me, to be any suspicious items on the list

That is the Plugins page not the add-ons page.

Type about:addons in the address bar. Then take a screenshot of the Extensions page.

All for your plugins look ok though. My guess it is an extension that you have installed, so as soon as you post the extensions screenshot I think we will be able to find the problem.

How often does this tab open up?

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
• TDSSKiller - AntiRootkit Utility
• 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.

Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Hi mikecox, to clarify the above comment about add-ons vs. plugins, the add-ons page lists several different categories on the left side (e.g., Appearance, Extensions, Plugins), and Extensions tend to be the most troublesome.

As an alternative to capturing screen shots of your Extensions, you can copy and page from this page (second table):

Help > Troubleshooting Information

The Sponsorship popup appears no more than once a day, possibly not every day, and it seems to appear about 1:00 p.m.

And here is the screenshot, just for fun

Hi kruppml, perhaps it's a scheduled task? You could check here, although it might be possible to have hidden tasks for all I know:

Windows XP: Start button > [All] Programs > Accessories> System Tools > Scheduled Tasks

Windows 7: Start button > Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler

(The list of "Windows" tasks in Win7 is bewildering...)

I'm really confused.

I tried entering "About:addons" in the address field; assuming it meant the URL address field and got a lot of search results; no list.

You suggestion I "cut and paste"; which also confused me because I have copied the "Plug-Ins" list from the Add-Ons Manger. There is no "Add-Ons" list; just a "get Add-ons" list. I didn't copy the Extensions list because it only contained two items; "Roboform" and "Microsoft.Net net..." and "Appearance" has only a"default" item listed and "Services" is empty.

Something just isn't adding up here \-:

btw, yesterday this thing pop up while I was in Word; it just opened FF and displayed, out of nowhere. I haven't seen it today; yet.

If this pop-up is opening Firefox when it is closed, then it is a scheduled task on your computer. Another program or add-on must have added it to the tasks. Simply open your Windows Tasks and delete the one that is opening the link. If you can't figure out which one it is, post a screenshot of the list of tasks.

Ok, I got that part (-: Thanks! Here is the screen shot

Can you take a screenshot of the Windows Task folder please?

Just follow these steps someone posted above:

"Windows XP: Start button > [All] Programs > Accessories> System Tools > Scheduled Tasks

Windows 7: Start button > Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler"

My anti-virus Avast appears to allow a so-called "Microsoft Sponsorship" infection to run periodically and unprompted from my browser.

http://big.deluxeforthefuture.com/g/?ilmernzkvtaz=8CA9827578BF7168&pu=bGxveWRzdHNiLmNvLnVr&s=firefox&nm=ilmernzkvtaz http://tv.channel157news.com/news/?ilmernzkvtazn=8CA9827578BF7168&pu=&s=D-firefox&nm=ilmernzkvtazn http://tv.channel157news.com/news/?ilmernzkvtazn=8CA9827578BF7168&pu=Z29vZ2xlLmNvLnVr&s=firefox&nm=ilmernzkvtazn&t=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLz9nd3NfcmQ9Y3I=

I have attempted to prevent this trojan from running but without success. The website www.removepcthreat.com says: "Sponsorship is a malicious adware program that gets installed to Windows PC without any information and knowledge. Sponsorship can downloads lots of malicious codes and system files that consumes huge system resource and make the entire PC running process slow and unresponsive. Sponsorship changes your the web browser settings and redirect web search results to suspicious websites. This Sponsorship makes use of keystrokes and keyloggers that record online and offline activities and send all the information to remote hackers. Moreover, Sponsorship reduce your system performance, modifying registry, Internet, firewall settings. Once Sponsorship appears on your computer, you should not hesitate to remove it completely to safeguard your computer and data timely." However, I am reluctant to follow their suggested procedure as I would prefer Avast to deal with it. Is there a simple way to block this infection?