hello kpy4e, if you get unsolicited popups that might be a sign of malware active on your system. please perform these steps:

1. reset firefox (this will keep your bookmarks and passwords)
2. afterwards go to firefox > addons > extensions and in case there are still extensions listed there, disable them.
3. finally run a full scan of your system with different security tools like the free version of malwarebytes and adwcleaner to make sure that adware isn't present in other places of your system as well.

Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

Thank you for the reply.

Yes, I have already tried 1. and 2. but without success.

I am a bit reluctant to try 3. because I have concerns regarding the safety of those tools.

What softwares did you install in your pc just before the problem started?

do you have any particular concern? those tools are recommended in mozilla's guide to troubleshoot malware (How do I get rid of malware?), malwarebytes is a reputable AV-vendor and adwcleaner a small but effective tool against the most common browser hijackers which - in my experience - yields very good results.

Thanks, if they are endorsed by Mozilla I will give it a shot.

In principle I am overly careful of what I install on my computer and hence I am surprised that I have this problem in a first place.

Many many thanks guys for the assistance.

I also have this problem. It started today. The weird thing is, I didn't install anything. I haven't even started my computer in about two weeks.

What I did "install" was the forced Windows update.

Yes, I have not installed anything either except the usual Windows updates. I have tried the following so far:

1. Uninstalling recently installed software - nothing to uninstall 2. Firefox reset - no joy 3. ADWcleaner - no joy 4. Installed firefox add-on for blocking specific addresses - blocks it but still opens a new tab - not an elegant solution

I will try more stuff and will report on outcomes....

can you run a scan with the tool from http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/ and paste the log into a reply here?

http://pastebin.mozilla.org/4171501

hey alex, unfortunately there isn't something particularly suspicious that i can discover in your log file (however i'm no security expert either).

in order to narrow down the problem, would you be willing to do some further troubleshooting? if so try to see if the issue is also apparent...

1. in a new profile: Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles
2. after a clean reinstall of firefox: Clean reinstall
3. when you boot windows in safemode (with networking mode): http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/start-computer-safe-mode#start-computer-safe-mode=windows-7