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.

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

How can I stop a web site from taking over my computer and stop Firefox from trying to recover that evil site after hard boot and re-launch?

  • 5 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

While surfing around, an evil web page ( some bogus cyber security-FBI-Interpol crap ) takes over and starts reloading the same page over and over freezing all keyboard and mouse commands. After forcing Firefox to quit, and relaunch, it starts to recover these same bad links. Even after using the power button to force shut down my Mac it still tries to re-load the web page on restart and Firefox launch. Is there a way to tell Firefox to not try and recover the offending page or any page that was active when the take-over occurred?

While surfing around, an evil web page ( some bogus cyber security-FBI-Interpol crap ) takes over and starts reloading the same page over and over freezing all keyboard and mouse commands. After forcing Firefox to quit, and relaunch, it starts to recover these same bad links. Even after using the power button to force shut down my Mac it still tries to re-load the web page on restart and Firefox launch. Is there a way to tell Firefox to not try and recover the offending page or any page that was active when the take-over occurred?

Chosen solution

no, this doesn't start a circle - once you leave the site with js disabled it will be gone for good...

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (5)

more options

hi dsly, please try to press Command-Option-K in order to open the firefox web console, and click on the settings icon on the top left. in this panel tick the option to "disable javascript", which in turn should make it possible to leave the malicious page immediately...

more options

Philipp Thank you for your reply. I will try this solution the next time I have a hostile take-over!

It says 'current session only, reloads the page'. Does this mean it will restart the 'vicious circle' all over again? Dan

more options

Chosen Solution

no, this doesn't start a circle - once you leave the site with js disabled it will be gone for good...

more options

I was surfing the web, when somehow I landed on a bad web site. The web page displayed a so-called message from the FBI (you know the one), and Firefox was locked. I shut down FF via the Windows Task Manager. When I tried to restart FF, FBI was back. I shut FF down. Then, using the Open New Window option, I was able to get FF up.


This add-on can stop such pages; disallow Script Button {web link} The Disallow Script button looks like a letter "M" and the title is the Minus Script, drag and drop the button on a toolbar. If the button is not displayed then nothing operates, except rules for plugins.

more options

You can set the Integer pref browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes to 0 on the about:config page to get the about:sessionrestore page immediately with the first start after a crash has occurred or the Task Manager was used to close Firefox.