Mozilla VPN is currently experiencing an outage. Our team is actively working to resolve the issue. Please check the status page for real-time updates. Thank you for your patience.

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Firefox w/ Windows 8: Ask.com hijacking home page. Malwarebytes does not find anything.

  • 5 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 11 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

dgswaters
dgswaters
more options

I have Windows 8 with Firefox. I have no idea how it happened, but Ask.com has hijacked my home page. I do not have the Ask.com toolbar. There is no Ask program in my Programs and Features in the Control Panel. There are no Add-ons in Firefox Extensions or Plug-ins, and no New Tab. I've run Malwarebytes and it doesn't find anything. I'm totally lost. Thanks.

I have Windows 8 with Firefox. I have no idea how it happened, but Ask.com has hijacked my home page. I do not have the Ask.com toolbar. There is no Ask program in my Programs and Features in the Control Panel. There are no Add-ons in Firefox Extensions or Plug-ins, and no New Tab. I've run Malwarebytes and it doesn't find anything. I'm totally lost. Thanks.

Chosen solution

You can use the SearchReset extension to reset some preferences to the default values.

Note that the SearchReset extension only runs once and then uninstalls automatically, so it won't show on the "Firefox > Add-ons" page (about:addons).

If you do not keep changes after a restart or otherwise have problems with preferences, see:

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (5)

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
more options

Try using the Search Reset extension.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/searchreset/

dgswaters
dgswaters Question owner
more options

That did not do anything.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

You may also want to reconsider your installed extensions.

  • CouponXplorer 5.75.2.64122 (5zffxtbr@CouponXplorer_5z.com)
  • ShopAtHome.com Toolbar 7.1.1.2 (toolbar@shopathome.com)

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.
dgswaters
dgswaters Question owner
more options

In safe mode, I get a blank New Tab. So I've disabled the 2 toolbars, and running it in regular mode, now I get the blank New Tab. I tried to reset the home page to Bing.com by dragging it to the home page icon and selecting "set as default", but it's not working. Looks like I got rid of Ask.com, though! Can you help with that last part? And how would I uninstall those add-ons? Thanks.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Chosen Solution

You can use the SearchReset extension to reset some preferences to the default values.

Note that the SearchReset extension only runs once and then uninstalls automatically, so it won't show on the "Firefox > Add-ons" page (about:addons).

If you do not keep changes after a restart or otherwise have problems with preferences, see: