Why do I have to keep resetting Mozilla to stop slowness and popups?
I have rest Mozilla several times lately, and things like unsolicited adobe flash update requests and betting sites keep popping up, plus the browser gets incredibly slow. Any ideas?
All Replies (1)
Did you download Firefox from the official Mozilla site? Sometimes if you search on Google or any search provider, they sometimes have "Advertised links" which are sometimes Firefox bundles that have been slightly modified/shipped with malicious software.
If you did download from a different website and believe that to be the cause, you can report the link here:
Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer that you may not be aware of. First check your home page settings to make sure nothing was appended (if there is a | followed by another link, that tells Firefox to open another tab with that link):
- Tools (or
) > Options > General
Also check your add-ons for any suspicious extensions:
- Tools (or ) > Add-ons > Extensions
Check your list of install programs in Windows - Control Panel > Programs and Features. Usually malware comes bundled with other applications, so if you sort by date and see several applications installed at the same day, it may be easier to find suspicious applications that way.
You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software. A third party software could be modifying your Firefox preferences without your knowledge so hopefully scanning using one or two of these can eliminate any of the malicious files:
- MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
- AdwCleaner (for more info, see this alternate AdwCleaner download page)
- Microsoft Safety Scanner
- Anti-Rootkit Utility - TDSSKiller
- Hitman Pro
- ESET Online Scanner
Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.