I want yahoo.com as my default home page. Why is it going to search.yahoo.com?
I added (and since uninstalled) software and it made firefox and internet explorer to default to search.yahoo.com. I've fixed this on IE but every time I open firefox it goes back to the search page although the last time I closed it I changed it to yahoo.com. Please advise
All Replies (2)
Two quick checks first:
(1) Home page setting is OK here? If Firefox loses your change when you close the dialog, that can indicate malware.
(2) Home icon on the toolbar (or Alt+Home keyboard shortcut) has the same problem? If only your desktop shortcut has the problem, it can indicate that the "Target" of the shortcut has been hacked.
Otherwise, it's probably a bad add-on that is lingering after your clean-up. Here is my suggested procedure for finding and removing bad add-ons. This is based on the unfortunate fact that many bad add-ons arrive as part of a free software download rather than something you installed intentionally from the add-ons site.
(1) Open the Windows Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. After the list loads, click the "Installed on" column heading to group the infections, I mean, additions, by date. This can help in smoking out undisclosed bundle items that snuck in with some software you agreed to install. Take out as much trash as possible here.
(2) Open Firefox's Add-ons page using either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
In the left column, click Plugins. Set nonessential and unrecognized plugins to "Never Activate".
In the left column, click Extensions. Then, if in doubt, disable (or Remove, if possible) unrecognized and unwanted extensions.
Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.
Any improvement?
(3) You can search for remaining issues with the scanning/cleaning tools listed in our support article: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware. These on-demand scanners are free and take considerable time to run. If they finish quickly and especially if they require payment, you may have a serious infection. I suggest the specialized forums listed in the article in that case.
Also... if you can change the home page and it works throughout your session, but at the next startup, it is back to an unwanted page, check out this article: How to fix preferences that won't save.
Users with Advanced SystemCare and some other utility software also experience a similar issue, where the software rolls back any Firefox settings changes to protect you from unwanted changes. You may need to disable the "surfing protection" or "home page protection" or "browser protection" feature.