How do I get rid of a search engine that has taken over home page?
Search.US.com has taken over my hone page and everything else it can. I have tried all the suggestions available to me by the help section. I have went so far as to delete cookies. This is very invasive. I looked at restoring the system but have few options for recovery points and they don't include the search engine download. I removed the add on it came with as well. I had removed the search engine in add/remove programs and was stupid when it asked if I wanted the default settings restored. I said no. I'm afraid I am j pretty stupid when it comes to software. I hope someone can help me. Thank you for your time in this matter. ps I put what I thought was relevant in the bottom box. I had not seen this before. I tried to modify it but couldn't.
Soultender
Chosen solution
First, you should be able to reset your home page in the following dialog:
orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > General > Startup section
If that reverts at the next startup, you probably have some further clean-up to do.
If you prefer to use the built-in Firefox homepage, this add-on can help re-wire the search box back to Google:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/searchreset/
For possible further research, here are two past threads on this problem:
- How do I get rid of 'start.search.us.com' always making itself my 'Home Page' on Firefox? And no, the obvious actions will not work.
- Is search.us.com a part of FireFox?
All Replies (5)
Chosen Solution
First, you should be able to reset your home page in the following dialog:
orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > General > Startup section
If that reverts at the next startup, you probably have some further clean-up to do.
If you prefer to use the built-in Firefox homepage, this add-on can help re-wire the search box back to Google:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/searchreset/
For possible further research, here are two past threads on this problem:
If there is a problem with searching via the default about:home page then try to reset the search engine used on the about:home page.
Reset the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone pref via the right-click context menu to the default on the about:config page and close and restart Firefox to restore the about:home page to its default.
- Open the about:config page via the location bar
- Type in the Filter bar: mstone
- Right-click the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone line and select: Reset
- Close and restart Firefox
If this didn't help then delete the delete the chromeappsstore.sqlite file in the Firefox Profile Folder and repeat the above.
Thank you so much. This is so invasive. I finally just deleted firefox in desperation. I was lucky enough to find a new build and downloaded it. That worked. I had tried so many solutions to this. This is the quickest way if there is a new build out there. Of course you can't chance saving any information. I had the first download only a couple of weeks so I didn't lose much. Others will benefit from your expertise. Thank you again.
I finally got a hold of someone at that search us.com. They gave me this link to try and solve the problem. I have already reinstalled firefox but it might help someone else out. And it's much simpler. I haven't tried it but they said to get a hold of them if it didn't work. the link is:
Running ResetBrowsers.exe from http://support.search.us.com/uninstall.php should restore your settings to their defaults
Hope I'm not misusing this post. Thanks again for all your help. Your are all awesome.
As soultender mentions, using our free ResetBrowsers.exe utility from http://support.search.us.com/uninstall.php is the easiest way to uninstall the Search.us.com toolbar, and change your search engine, homepage, and tab settings back to Firefox's default settings.
Please don't hesitate to contact us for additional assistance.