Hello,

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I cannot seem to upload images at the moment. http://pasteboard.co/RzzSbwAp.jpg I think its a virus or something as it appears in IE as well.

I think that is the browsers search bar. That web page also has a search bar.

Yes that's correct, the browser is fine and has no additional toolbars added but the Web pages do have an additional search bar that was not present a while back and is not part of that page. Somehow code is being added to the page to produce that search bar. It also hijacks the search box and when I type in the url search box it hijacks that as well. Hence why I think it's a virus or malware. Malwarebytes could not find it and neither can avast. Hence my coming here to see if someone else has had this and has successfully removed it!

Hello,

Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

• Click the menu button , click Help and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:

• On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
• On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
• On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
  (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.

To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

If Safe Mode didn't help, you can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

• Microsoft Safety Scanner
• Anti-Rootkit Utility - TDSSKiller
• 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!

adamk81 said

Hence why I think it's a virus or malware

More like ad-ware. Some add-ons and programs can change browser settings, like the default search engine.

The search bar was still there in Safe Mode so not an extension item.

FredMcD was right it was Ad-ware. I ran Malwarebytes and got nothing, but then ran a search using the bar and it redirected through two domains feed.snowbitt com and play-bar-search com and ended up at Yahoo. It appears that snowbitt and play bar are known ad-ware domains and after then running Malwarebytes again after this search there was loads of ad-ware on the machine and i couldn't even use the browser as it redirected everything to awful pages that said I had to pay to recover my machine etc.

So I cleaned those out and refreshed all my browsers. That seems to have cleared the issue. Not sure where this ad-ware was hiding in FF but the refresh cleaned it out!

It’s very sad, but many of the software downloaders / installers will trick you into installing not only their program, but other programs as well. You have heard of the fine print in shady contracts, right? Well, some installers you need to look at the itsy bitsy teeny weeny fine print. You are thinking you are giving the installer permission to install the program you want by using the recommended option. But if you use the Manual Option Instead, you discover all kinds of stuff that you do not even know what it is or what it does. From now on, everyone needs to Use The Manual Option to put a stop to this.