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Solution for Firefox Homepage is Hijacked by freshy Yahoo etc...

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by philipp

Jones.us
Jones.us
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I hope this post can help many who experienced the same problem as I had.

The homepage was hijacked by services.freshy.com to have yahoo as homepage and other bars in firefox. anti-virus or malware removal software couldn't find it. It's very annoying and un-secure feeling every time firefox is opened.

I finally found the issue:

It was caused by a software called MoviePlus which is a malware and virus spreader. I suggested that you tell everyone not to download and install this software. It's a really bad stuff.

The solution for the firefox homepage hijack is to edit the file:

C:\Users\YOUR_USERID\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\THE_FOLDER_NAME.default\user.js

Remove string that contains freshy.com and replace it with www.google.com for example: user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "www.google.com");

Also, delete all user_pref parameters that you don't understand or look suspicious and leaf an empty " ".

Good luck!

I hope this post can help many who experienced the same problem as I had. The homepage was hijacked by services.freshy.com to have yahoo as homepage and other bars in firefox. anti-virus or malware removal software couldn't find it. It's very annoying and un-secure feeling every time firefox is opened. I finally found the issue: It was caused by a software called MoviePlus which is a malware and virus spreader. I suggested that you tell everyone not to download and install this software. It's a really bad stuff. The solution for the firefox homepage hijack is to edit the file: C:\Users\YOUR_USERID\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\THE_FOLDER_NAME.default\user.js Remove string that contains freshy.com and replace it with www.google.com for example: user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "www.google.com"); Also, delete all user_pref parameters that you don't understand or look suspicious and leaf an empty " ". Good luck!

All Replies (3)

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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hello Jones.us, i would recommend to totally delete this user.js file, since it overwrites firefox' own settings.

How to fix preferences that won't save

in addition, since most of the time an adware product doesn't just get installed on its own but bundled with all sorts of crap, it would be best to run a full scan of your system with different security tools like the free version of malwarebytes and adwcleaner which are specialised on adware that traditional security software might not flag.

Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

Jones.us
Jones.us Question owner
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Many so called malware remover or anti-virus software themselves are malware and virus spreader. I don't suggest using these things unless it's from well known source.

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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those two tools i've mentioned here are tested and trustworthy - they also get recommended in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware. in general your advice to not use software of unknown origin is a good one of course!