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Yahoo has hijacked the search engines

  • 3 replies
  • 13 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by pmanske

ellaryk
ellaryk
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When I launch Firefox v 21 Yahoo appears in the search engine box. If I try to select another search engine, Yahoo remains. I can delete Yahoo and everything works fine until I restart Firefox and the problem returns. I did notice that this Yahoo has a red icon associated with it while Yahoo normally has a purple icon associated with it. I assume this occurred after installing some software but I don't know what. Thank you for any help yo can provide.

When I launch Firefox v 21 Yahoo appears in the search engine box. If I try to select another search engine, Yahoo remains. I can delete Yahoo and everything works fine until I restart Firefox and the problem returns. I did notice that this Yahoo has a red icon associated with it while Yahoo normally has a purple icon associated with it. I assume this occurred after installing some software but I don't know what. Thank you for any help yo can provide.

All Replies (3)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
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Try to 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).

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 or otherwise make changes.

If you do not keep changes after a restart, see:

Gotfuzz
Gotfuzz
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I've done just about everything everyone told me to to never work, So i gave up and didn't use the search bar! But just about ten minutes ago i was messing around with the task manager and i saw a program i didn't recognize. "SearchProtection" No before i deleted this thing i did some search on what it was because in the past i deleted sch.host or something like that thinking it was a virus, So here is what i found!

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/SearchProtection.exe-20903.html

I hope this works for you guys, But it seems to have worked for me. Oh i nearly forgot mine wasnt were it said on this website, For me it was super hidden! found it in appdata-roaming-Searchprotection. But the easy way to find it. "If this is your problem" Should be Ctrl-Alt-Delete, fine Searchprotection right click it then click open file location, I did this on windows 7 im not sure how it will work on the others but Again i hope this works for you!!

Modified by Gotfuzz

pmanske
pmanske
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Hi - I have solution as I had the problem for awhile. To the point...

You have a good guy search engine directory in the c:\programs\firefox... path and a bad guy search engine directory in the c:\users... path.

You need to find the bad guy directory and delete it. Use Windows Explorer to search find and destroy that directory by searching c:\users.. path.

I got hammered with Sweetpacks and I am still digging pieces out six months later and I found the directory searching for Sweetpacks but it looks like you'll need to search with "Yahoo". Just pick thru the results using common sense, the files are XML I believe. Delete the directory.

Those search engine entries are add-ons but they don't act like it.

The good guy directory loads first and the bad guy loads second and thus overrides the first.

Good luck!