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Why does Firefox keep swapping Google for Yahoo - I want Google maps on hand

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by AnneW

AnneW
AnneW
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I come back from an update and find Yahoo has taken over again. I may not notice until I want a quick map. Then I realise I am not in Google and have to go to some effort to find a map which may not be as good.

I come back from an update and find Yahoo has taken over again. I may not notice until I want a quick map. Then I realise I am not in Google and have to go to some effort to find a map which may not be as good.

All Replies (3)

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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hello, this sounds like a problem possibly caused by adware on your pc.

  1. please go to the firefox menu ≡ > addons > extensions & remove any suspicious entries (toolbars, things that you have not installed intentionally, don't know what purpose they serve, etc).
  2. also go to the windows control panel / programs and remove all toolbars or potentially unwanted software from there.
  3. finally, run a full scan of your system with different security tools like the free version of malwarebytes & adwcleaner, which are specialised in adware and browser hijackers.

Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

Shadow110
Shadow110
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This could be an issue caused by AdAware or Web Companion from Lavasoft.

You can look for a file named dsengine.js in these locations. You should only find channel-prefs.js in the "defaults\pref" location. Any file found here apart from channel-prefs.js is suspicious. You can check the content of the file in a text editor (use open with and do not double-click the file).

  • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref\
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref\

You can look for a file named dsengine.cfg in the main Firefox program folder.

  • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\

Delete the dsengine.js and dsengine.cfg files when present.

Please run this after or if there is no above this needs to be run as you have a browser hijack going on as the default search engine is Google :

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

AnneW
AnneW Question owner
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Interim reply: Thank you both for such a quick response. I am old, disabled and not very good at this, so I could not face making sense of it last night - I only wrote on the spur of the moment, when I couldn't immediately call up a map to see where something was - I did not expect a useful answer. I will try now I am feeling more alert, but if I may, there may be more naive questions before I get there.