Search Pulse
Hi:
I installed a few days ago the latest version of Firefox on my iMac. I am noticing that when I open a new window in Firefox, a tab is opened and it shows Search Pulse. I looked it up and it appears that it is some kind of adware that is dangerous and is hard to remove. I looked up some articles and they all seem to be written by some vendor promoting a product for removal. I am very concerned asking for more problems than what I have as I am not a technical person.
Did anyone encounter this adware and if so what's a trustworthy product to remove it?
I have Norton and the free version of Malwarebytes on my computer. None of these programs caught the installation of this adware.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Chosen solution
Just an update: my follow-up with Malwarebytes did not lead anywhere. The requested a dump which was 41 MB and my internet provider would not allow for.
I reported the problem but despite the two opened tickets I didn't hear from anyone.
However, going through settings for Firefox led me to a location under HOME, where unbeknown to me the website for Search Pulse was entered to be the default site for opening a new window....
I deleted that and since then I didn't have any signs of potential infection. I hope I got rid of it before it could do harm. I have no idea how this website was installed with Firefox and why it was there....
So hopefully this issue can be put to rest. Thanks for trying to help.
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You may have ad/mal-ware. Further information can be found in this article; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware?cache=no
Run most or all of the listed free to use malware scanners. Each works differently. If one program misses something, another may pick it up.
Web search; https://www.bing.com/search?q=Search Pulse "To try and remove Search Pulse from Mac try to do the following:"
Thanks. I will check the referenced links.
Thanks.
Hello,
I am glad to hear that your problem has been resolved. If you haven't already, please select the answer that solves the problem. This will help other users with similar problems find the solution.
Thank you for contacting Mozilla Support.
zthe problem was not resolved. I am waiting for an answer from Malwarebytes. I read many instructions and they tell you to go through the hundreds of entries in the Activity Monitor, etc. and try to identify the virus with a strange name. Not too many people can do that.
Other articles give you similarly impossible steps to follow, to tell you at the end to use their software. I will not download software without knowing that it is not another Trojan horse of some kind. I didn't read about any other reliable software from a well known source (other than Malwarebytes) that I could trust. In today's world, it is very hard to know who can be trusted...
So while I appreciate all the suggestions and pointers, the problem is not yet addressed. In the meantime I am using Safari, which doesn't appear to have a problem.
Chosen Solution
Just an update: my follow-up with Malwarebytes did not lead anywhere. The requested a dump which was 41 MB and my internet provider would not allow for.
I reported the problem but despite the two opened tickets I didn't hear from anyone.
However, going through settings for Firefox led me to a location under HOME, where unbeknown to me the website for Search Pulse was entered to be the default site for opening a new window....
I deleted that and since then I didn't have any signs of potential infection. I hope I got rid of it before it could do harm. I have no idea how this website was installed with Firefox and why it was there....
So hopefully this issue can be put to rest. Thanks for trying to help.
That was very good work. Well Done. Please flag your last post as Solved Problem as this can help others with similar problems.
It’s very sad, but many 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.
Note that these programs can also change browser/computer settings.
The problem is not everyone is a computer expert. It would have never occurred to me that I could not trust the installation for Firefox....
Also if you do a manual install and you are faced with a list of applications to install, probably you have no idea what they are and if should or should not install them.... How do you know what belongs or not to what you really want to install?
Can someone request that this 500 message be changed to something more meaningful and helpful?
If you want to leave feedback for Firefox developers, you can go to the Firefox Help menu and select Submit Feedback... or use this link (submission is currently paused). Your feedback gets collected by a team of people who read it and gather data about the most common issues. ----->
If you need to file a bug report or feature request for Firefox and other Mozilla products, see File a bug report or feature request for Mozilla products for details.
Modified by FredMcD
Thanks. Useful info, particularly when feedback will be available.