Do you see this text if you check the google.xml file in the browser\searchplugins folder in the Firefox program folder?

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

• Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
• Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

Hi cor-el,

Thanks for the response. The problem is on my work computer, so I'll have to take a look when I go in on Monday. I'll let you know what I find then. Thanks for trying to help!

Hi cor-el,

I checked the google.xml file, and that text does not appear anywhere in the code. And I tried starting in Safe Mode, and it still applies the text string to all of my Google searches, so it doesn't appear to be any of the extensions.

I also tried Google searches from the search bar on Chrome and IE, and they worked fine. So it's purely a Firefox issue.

Any ideas what to try next?

Maybe that is an add-on search plugin? Add-on Search Plugins are in the /searchplugins/ folder in the Profile folder.

Help > Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder - Show Folder

Thanks for the suggestion, the-edmeister, but the only thing in that folder is the google-default.xml plugin that I installed *after* the problem with the regular google.xml plugin began.

The google-default.xml plugin is working just fine, so I can use that instead of the regular google.xml plugin. Now I'd just like to find out what the problem is so I can make sure it doesn't cause any other issues. Plus it's just bugging me that I don't know what I did to cause it. :)

Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer. Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender:
  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked