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I have a wierd serch on my computer., how do I get rid of it.

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  • Last reply by Bmasters

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I let someone else use my computer and he put a weird search on my screen. called Whitesmoke I took a picture of it but can't show it to you. My computer is running really slow and hanging up as well. I tried to reset Firefox to default and that didn't work either..

I let someone else use my computer and he put a weird search on my screen. called Whitesmoke I took a picture of it but can't show it to you. My computer is running really slow and hanging up as well. I tried to reset Firefox to default and that didn't work either..

Chosen solution

Firefox will create extra "Old Firefox Data" folders with a number appended ("Old Firefox Data-##") if you reset Firefox another time.

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There are two things here.

First, you may have some malware (or simply irritating software) installed at the Windows level that you need to remove using either the Windows control panel or some software that removes malware/annoying software.

These two tools for cleaning up such software are highly regarded and free:

Malwarebytes Anti-malware : http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free

SUPERAntiSpyware : http://www.superantispyware.com/

Second, you have two Firefox add-ons you probably don't want. Your "More system details" shows them as inactive, but your home page and URL bar search provider were changed, and you also show a user.js file, which can alter your Firefox preferences every time you start up.

If you don't mind digging around a bit, you can fix those changes manually. Otherwise, you can use the Firefox Reset feature. Since you do not have a lot of add-ons, the Reset probably is easiest in this case, but do the system level cleanup first. Then see this article: Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings.

Any luck?

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Sorry, I overlooked that you already did a Reset once. Please rename the "Old Firefox Settings" folder on the desktop so you can preserve the original files if you Reset again.

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Chosen Solution

Firefox will create extra "Old Firefox Data" folders with a number appended ("Old Firefox Data-##") if you reset Firefox another time.

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I followed your advice and it ie beautifully gone. It even saved my data! Thank You so much Barb

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Thank yoiu so much I now know about old firefox and feel comfortable messing with troubleshooting.

Thanks so much Barb