Hello,

I am sorry that you had to face this problem. Lets try to fix it. Follow the procedure describe below.

1. Go to your address bar and type about:config and press enter.

2. A page will open which will ask your permission to proceed. Click i'll be careful, I promise button.

3. On the page that opens next there is a search box at the top of the page. Search for home in that box and a list of option will appear (in a few seconds) . double click on browser.startup.homepage and a dialog box and in that dialog box type the name of the website which you want as your homepage ie https://au.yahoo.com or about:home (which is default value)

Thats it.

Hope it helps.

See:

• http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-hao123-virus/

Hi Talha

I did that and that did not resolve the issue.

hi teckee7,

Try the above solution given by cor-el.

cor-el said, "http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-hao123-virus/ "

Hey guys I tried the steps outlined in the link sent by cor-el. Still I am getting that hoa crap. What shall I do next?

In case you haven't already, double-check your Firefox icon to make sure it has the correct "Target" listed (right-click the icon > Properties > Shortcut tab):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

Does this work: on the Windows Start menu, type or paste all of the following into the search box and press Enter:

firefox.exe "https://www.google.com.au/"

Hi Jscher - I tried that and it open up Firefox but still defaulting to the Hoa website

That's strange. Firefox should open the page specified on the command line.

In case there was some tampering with your Firefox program folder, could you try:

Clean Reinstall

A regular reinstall may leave some stray files in your programs folder. This method is a bit cleaner.

(1) If needed, download a fresh installer for Firefox 31 from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/ to a convenient location. (Scroll down to your preferred language.)

(2) Exit out of Firefox.

(3) Rename the folder

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox

(4) Run the installer you downloaded in #1. It should automatically connect to your existing settings.

Does Firefox behave more normally?

Note: Some plugins may exist only in that OldFirefox folder. If something essential is missing, look in these folders:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox\Plugins
• C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox\browser\plugins

Hi Jscher - that did not work either. Its like the Hoa url may have updated my registry setting or something???

Hello,

You should check your control to check something related to hao123 is installed there. It turns out in many cases it installs itself.

Press and hold window button and then press r to open run dialog. In that dialog box type appwiz.cpl to open the Uninstall page.

Please check this.

Hi Talha

I checked that too - nothing there. I read the following - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/995906 in there it mentions about a file 'user.js' which does not exist in my profiles. Not sure if that is a similiar issue to mine.

Normally, Firefox loads the start page specified in the Options dialog (and stored in prefs.js).

This can be overridden by a user.js file (which you checked for). Note that Advanced SystemCare and some other utility programs can change your settings, too.

Those can be overridden by the command line of your program shortcut.

Everything conceivably can be overridden by malware executing in memory and watching your browsers.

The Windows Registry really isn't a factor.

Sadly no,

It seems that you have been infected by a serious virus.

Please read [ http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php?topic=10117.0 ] .

In short that article is saying:

Press and hold window button and then press r to open run dialog. In that dialog box type regedit to go to your registry page. hao123 sometimes installs with other programs such as drivers gotten from untrusted websites or even direct IP attacks, it will corrupt your winsock1 and winsock2 leaving an entry called 000000000070 under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\(ControlSet001 and ControlSet002 and CurrentControlSet)\Services\WinSock2\Parameters\Protocol_Catalog9\Catalog_Entries\

See if you have that entry.

By the way, if you do not see .js extensions in your profile folder, unhide them using the steps in this article: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wi.../show-hide-file-name-extensions.

I looked up the REGEDIT and only found 000000000007 entries.

As for the profile - C:\Users\Teck Ee\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ojw4w32s.default-1406520274500

I did see several files with suffix of .js but none that is called user.js

Maybe I need to do a full pc reset

Change your homepage in Menu>option>General Tab>Home Page OR The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information.
Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions and some Preferences.

• Open websites will not be saved in Firefox versions lower than 25.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

For Firefox versions previous to 29.0:

1. Go to Firefox > Help > Troubleshooting Information.
2. Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
3. Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
4. Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.

For Firefox 29.0 and above:

1. Click the menu button , click help and select Troubleshooting Information.Now, a new tab containing your troubleshooting information should open.
2. At the top right corner of the page, you should see a button that says "Reset Firefox". Click on it.
3. Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
4. Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.

Further information can be found in the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

no i did already no reset helped

In our malware support article you will find a couple of specialist forums to assist with malware removal where they can guide you in the use of more advanced tools to track it down. Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar and search for prefs that refer to hao123. You can reset user set (bold) prefs via the right-click context menu to the default value.

You can check for the presence of a mozilla.cfg file in the Firefox program folder to initialize some prefs.

This also involves the presence of a .js (JScript) file, probably in "defaults\pref" folder, that specifies to process this mozilla.cfg file.

If you have .js files apart from the channel-prefs.js file, that sets app.update.channel, in the defaults\pref folder then open this file in an editor like Notepad and please post its content. Also please post the content of the mozilla.cfg file.

There shouldn't be a mozilla.fcg file present unless you've created it yourself to initialize some prefs.

If you have this mozilla.cfg file then best is to do a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder before reinstalling a fresh copy of Firefox.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved#Other_solutions