I can't change my default search engine.
A few days ago I wasn't careful enough by downloading a application from the internet. My landing page and my search engines were change to webssearches.com. Moreover a toolbar was installed. To remove the toolbar and clean out the addon wasn't that hard. To change the landing page was quite easy too, but I am not able to set my default search engine for the address bar back to DuckDuckGo.com. Eventhough I changed it in the about:config. After every restart of Firefox the search engine goes back to webssearches.com. How can i fix this? Even a complete new Firefox didn't solved the problem.
Réiteach roghnaithe
Brombeersalat,
I suspect that you didn't completely rid your PC of all that webssearches.com Malware / PUP. Fixing the issue in Firefox isn't enough, and now that crap is re-installing itself back into Firefox on a cold boot of Windows or when Firefox is launched.
See this - http://malwaretips.com/blogs/istart-webssearches-com-removal/
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What is your operating system and what version is your operating system?
I use the 64-bit version of Windows 7 (6.1, Build 7601, SP 1 installed).
(Windows 7 Professional)
GlitchMasta47 said
What is your operating system and what version is your operating system?
At the top right of a support page are several boxes you can open to show you that information. The primary is; Question Details.
Bookmark and use this; Download the Mozilla Search Reset {web link} This add-on is very simple: on installation, it backs up and then resets your search preferences and home page to their default values, and then uninstalls itself. This affects the search bar, URL bar searches, and the home page.
Settings Guard for Firefox {web link} Detects and resets changes to settings that are frequently done by add-ons and application installers.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-to-fix-preferences-wont-save
It’s very sad, but many of the software down-loaders / installers will trick you into installing not only their program, but other programs as well. You have heard of the fine print in shady contracts, right? Well, some installers you need to look at the itsy bitsy teeny weeny fine print. You are thinking you are giving the installer permission to install the program you want by using the recommended option. But if you use the Manual Option Instead, you discover all kinds of stuff that you do not even know what it is or what it does. From now on, everyone needs to Use The Manual Option to put a stop to this.
I am aware of that, but in that moment i was busy and forgot about that. The Mozilla Search Reset helped a lot, but didn't solved the problem completely. Now my default search engine for the address bar was set to Google (not webssearches) which is a bit better, but i would like to have duckduckgo.com. Every time I try to change the configs, the value is changed, but it has no effect. So if I try to search in the address bar, mozilla keeps using google instead of duckduckgo. After a restart of mozilla the config is reset to google again. I can change every config except this one. How can I solve this?
Hi,
Try the following steps.
1.open menu ->options->search click on add more search engines
2.From that list select the search engine -> click on add to firefox
3.open menu ->options->search set the default search engine.
Regards Deepak Krishnan P.R
Réiteach Roghnaithe
Brombeersalat,
I suspect that you didn't completely rid your PC of all that webssearches.com Malware / PUP. Fixing the issue in Firefox isn't enough, and now that crap is re-installing itself back into Firefox on a cold boot of Windows or when Firefox is launched.
See this - http://malwaretips.com/blogs/istart-webssearches-com-removal/