What do you mean with the 'unable' in your above post? Do these not apply or can't you use them at all? Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test. *http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-start-windows-in-safe-mode/ If there are problem with the desktop shortcut then make sure that the shortcut isn't set to read-only. ---- Do a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder before (re)installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release. *Download the full Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop<br>https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows registry and settings in security software. *Do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions. Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer. *(32 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\" *(64 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\" *It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling. *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox Your bookmarks and other personal data are stored in the Firefox profile folder and won't be affected by an uninstall and (re)install, but make sure that "remove personal data" is NOT selected when you uninstall Firefox. If you keep having problems then also create a new profile. ---- *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall ---- Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer. Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions. Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan. *Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:<br>http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php *AdwCleaner:<br>http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/<br>http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml *SuperAntispyware:<br>http://www.superantispyware.com/ *Microsoft Safety Scanner:<br>http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx *Windows Defender:<br>http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender *Spybot Search & Destroy:<br>http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html *Kasperky Free Security Scan:<br>http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller. *Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:<br>http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446 See also: *"Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Installing malwarebytes detected items seemingly unrelated to faststart123, at least none of the filenames or extensions looked related to faststart. Regardless all were quarantined. After installation, firefox was restarted, and faststart123 was still the 1st tab in the browser Installing AdwCleaner, after a system restart, faststart123 was removed from any browser tabs on firefox startup. Thanks very much!