<p>Here's my suggested procedure for tracking down and cleaning up bad add-ons and other hijackers. I know it seems long, but it's really not that bad.</p> <p>(1) Open the Windows <strong>Control Panel</strong>, Add/Remove Program.</p> <p><em>Be suspicious of everything you do not recognize/remember, as malware often uses important or innocent sounding names to discourage you from removing it.</em></p> <p>Take out as much trash as possible here. If you're not sure, feel free to post program names or a screenshot of the list.</p> <p>(2) Open Firefox's <strong>Add-ons page</strong> using either:</p> <ul> <li>Ctrl+Shift+a (Mac: Command+Shift+a)</li> <li>"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) &gt; Add-ons</li> <li>in the Windows "Run" dialog, type or paste<br>firefox.exe "about:addons"</li> </ul> <p>In the left column, click <strong>Extensions</strong>. Then, if in doubt, disable (or Remove, if possible) unrecognized and unwanted extensions; the troublemaker might not be obvious from its name. <em>All Mozilla-installed extensions are hidden from this page, so whatever you see here is your choice and your responsibility to enable, disable, or remove.</em></p> <p>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.</p> <p>Any improvement?</p> <p>(3) You can search for remaining issues with the <strong>scanning/cleaning tools</strong> 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.</p> Success? (4) If you think your connection might be hijacked, one thing you can check within Firefox is your proxy setting. * Windows: "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options * Mac: "3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences * Linux: "3-bar" menu button (or Edit menu) > Preferences In the left column, click Advanced. Then on the right side, with the "Network" mini-tab active, click the "Settings" button. The default of "Use system proxy settings" piggybacks on your Windows/IE "LAN" setting. "Auto-detect" can lead to a flaky connection. You may want to try "No proxy".