What is freecause ?

See also Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

The standard malware reply is:

Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

• Microsoft Safety Scanner
• MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
• TDSSKiller - AntiRootkit Utility

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.

Quick search suggests freecause is a toolbar so see

• Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page

freecause is a toolbar that hides in mozilla and others and hijacks searches and much worse. I need to find a way to delete it from about:config so it stops working

it is a hidden toolbar so I can't do that, what I have done so far is

type about:config

promise to be careful type free look at all the distressing freecause entries there is no delete option so i just change all the numbers to zero and toggle all the trues to false and for a few days I am in control again

You need to find and unistall the software not just change the preferences. Read the articles that the blue text leads to.

There are two problem with toolbars uninstalling / removing toolbars

1. Some anti malware scans do not find the software because it is something you choose to install, and some users will have deliberately installed such software and find it useful.
2. Often probably to discourage uninstallation the names of the software do not make an obvious match with the toolbar name

In fact this article suggests that it is just a plain extension and easily uninstalled

• http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_7388353_remove-freecause-toolbar.html
• you may then wish to try using this extension to reset preferences https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/searchreset/
• see also the official instructions i have already linked to Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page

Hello John99, I am not so harassed today so I can spare some time to tell you what happened. I followed the link to ehow which did not help but there was another link on that page that led me to

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_8548205_do-block-freecause.html

now I did what they said and installed Blocksite plus 1.1 when I restarted out of nowhere a box popped up asking me if I wanted to install the Nectar toolbar, no thanx sez I. I have now, as that page suggested, typed in www.freecause.com and evidently it will block clickthroughs from other sites that will take you there. I couldn't go through any of the other uninstall routes as this nectar toolbar did not appear on any add-on list or uninstall program. I would like to say thank you ever so much for taking all the time and trouble that you did to help me try and solve this rotten ratty little problem, you've restored my faith in forums.

Thanks for posting back, glad you solved the problem. There are many types of such toolbars and many different bundles and names, I suspect the name changes are partly to make it harder to uninstall these things.

No doubt others will have a similar problem and find this solution of use.