Hi,

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, Open websites, and some Preferences.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

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.

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!

If you would like to take a listing of the add-ons, changed preferences/settings etc. to quickly replicate the previous profile, please Copy all to clipboard (on the left of the reset button), and paste it into MS Office Excel, or OpenOffice/LibreOffice Calc, or notepad. However, it would be a good idea to check for the existence of the issue immediately after the reset.

If the problem persists, you may have to do a thorough malware scan using two or more different scanners, and perhaps also a offline scan. These dedicated security forums would be helpful.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/forum79.html

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/index.php

http://www.spywareinfoforum.com/

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/

Try to reset some preferences to the default with the SearchReset extension:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/searchreset/

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).

You can delete search.json file and a possible search.sqlite file in the Firefox Profile Folder.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

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

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

Do a malware check with some malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
You need to scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• http://www.superantispyware.com/ - SuperAntispyware
• http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Microsoft Safety Scanner
• http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Windows Defender: Home Page
• http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Spybot Search & Destroy

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Thank you very much for your help!