Let's make sure your system is clean.

Further information can be found in this article; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware?cache=no

Run most or all of the listed malware scanners. Each works differently. If one program misses something, another may pick it up.

If you are sure you don't want those other profiles, just remove their folders from the profiles folder.

Best would be to remove the \Mozilla\Firefox\ in both locations to start completely fresh. Make sure to backup your current personal data.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder. Location used for the main profile in "AppData\Roaming" that keeps your personal data.

• C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

Location used for the disk cache and other temporary files in "AppData\Local".

• C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

Perhaps this hasn't occurred to you: if you want to be sure the previous owner of a used system isn't actively reading everything you type/retrieve, listening to you through the microphone and watching you through the webcam, you need to rebuild it from the ground up. From scratch. Using trusted installers. No shortcuts. (Do back up your important data, photos, music, etc.)

If you want a shortcut, create a new user account on Windows, then remove the other user accounts that you have permission to remove. If you are not able to gain full administrative powers and remove the others or reduce them to non-admin permissions, please see paragraph 1.

FredMcD said

Let's make sure your system is clean. snip

Thanks. I already use malwarebytes. Re your suggestion I've downloaded and run SuperAntispyware Portable Scanner which didn't find anything. It also didn't offer any report or log so I assume that that's just how it does it. Or is that an indication that it's not working? Every other one I've used always says nothing found or gives you a list of what it's found.

However, this one :

Microsoft Safety Scanner

goes here :

https://www.microsoft.com/en-GB/security/scanner/default.aspx

and says : We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found. The URL may be misspelled or the page you're looking for is no longer available.

And this one : Anti-Rootkit Utility - TDSSKiller goes here : https://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/disinfection/5350 and doesn't offer a download.

So here it is : https://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/tdsskiller I've run it, no threats found. Thanks again.

And AdwCleaner, ran it, nothing found, thanks again FredMcD for suggesting it.

That's good to hear.

As to the bad links, I will let someone know to check them out.

cor-el said

Best would be to remove the \Mozilla\Firefox\ in both locations to start completely fresh. snip

Thanks, but as I mention, I already did uninstall firefox then reinstall it and it had no effect. Re appdata there's no appdata folder under my user profile or the user profile of the previous owner. I think I deleted them when I was trying to clear the previous owner material. I can't delete his user profile and the contents as when I try to it says "The action can't be completed because the file or a file in it is open in another program". There are 83 items 2.90 MB, all hidden ie I can't see them other than when the message shows in the attempt to delete the user name. The icon for the user name has a padlock. I managed to set the users to no sharing as it was previously open to sharing. The first time I tried to delete his user profile it stated about 300 files and 100 folders, all hidden so I couldn't see what they are, so some of them deleted but not the 83 items left. It'd be interesting to know what's in them and, for instance, whether it's copies of my activities or something else dodgy. I hope it's not something serious. But I think I need to know. What if it is something serious? Anyway, thanks again for your post.

Note that this is a problem with redirecting to another locale (en-GB in your case). I use this link and that shouldn't redirect to a not existing en-GB page:

• http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx

jscher2000 said

Perhaps this hasn't occurred to you: if you want to be sure the previous owner of a used system isn't actively reading everything you type/retrieve, listening to you through the microphone and watching you through the webcam, you need to rebuild it from the ground up. From scratch. Using trusted installers. No shortcuts. snip

Thanks, yes, I've looked through win7 for a reset (which as I mention win10 has and which so far appears to have cleared the malware on my win10 computer) and it doesn't appear to have one and then when I went to microsoft and tried to do a reset or recovery of win7 it wouldn't do it. The reset command for win7 for my laptop's make didn't work either. The laptop doesn't have a cd or dvd drive so I can't buy a disk. I suppose that it's probably not possible to put a legit copy of win7 on a USB stick and then install off that and I don't think I want to try to install a crack or bootleg. Oh well. Maybe I shouldn't worry about this. So what. I'm not doing anything of use or interest to the previous owner or anyone else and I stopped doing net banking in about 2001 when I found out how insecure it is so I'm not at risk in that regard. Or if it does bother me wondering about it then maybe I should just scrap the computer or give it away. It's not worth much. Except that that would be a waste as it sort of just about works for my purposes... Anyway, thanks again for your suggestions.

You should ask here about the total reinstall; https://support.microsoft.com

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/forum/windows_10

I don't know if a thumb drive can run the installer.

Check with your local computer service stores about what it would cost. Note: You may want to buy a DVD/CD reader.

FredMcD said

You should ask here about the total reinstall; https://support.microsoft.com http://answers.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/forum/windows_10 I don't know if a thumb drive can run the installer. Check with your local computer service stores about what it would cost. Note: You may want to buy a DVD/CD reader.

Thanks. I've already tried the microsoft support several times and it doesn't work. Due to your suggestion here I've now tried its virtual assistant twice and that doesn't work either as it won't answer any questions about win7, it simply mentions win10, Malicious Software Removal Tool, which I've tried several times and which never finds any of the malware. The virtual assistant also mentions Bit Defender, but in fact on this wn7 machine that is part of the malware problem as when spybot is blocked by the malware the bit defender does a weird error message which says that it's found a fault and I should email the error message to the bit defender developers. But when you try to see what the message is or how to send it to the developers it won't show it in notepad or word or anything else and then it crashes the computer. So I searched for bit defender to try to see what's going on and maybe try to do something about it but explorer and other searches can't find it. There's no way to get the microsoft support virtual assistant to answer any version of "uninstall then reinstall win7" or anything remotely useful regarding win7. Anyway, now I want one or two experts to remote analyse this win7 Dell laptop and find and eradicate the malware and add it to the databases of at least one or two antivirus programs. Any takers? Is maybe that your kind of thing Fred, or do you know anyone competent who'd like to give it a go? Please let me know, thanks. I also want to flag to the firefox developers the following faults or weaknesses in firefox which this palaver has identified : 1 persistent malware that afflicts firefox and which can't be got rid of by use of mainstream antivirus programs 2 persistent old and fake profiles in firefox which can't be deleted 3 inability to uninstall old malware riddled version of firefox then install fresh clean copy without the malware and old data As I understand it mozilla is supposed to be a group effort open source organization so as I don't know how it works or what the appropriate individuals or departments are, could one of you here please forward this to one or two of the likely relevant developers or groups, and if you have done that then please let me know here if anything can be done about this, thanks. And, as I suggest above, would anyone knowledgeable like to try to diagnose and clean my computer remotely, thanks if you do.

Find your Windows 7 Key. Most A/V programs do not like these kinds of programs but but Belarc Advisor will find your key with no A/V hassles. https://www.belarc.com/products_belarc_advisor

Then download the Win7 ISO file and burn it to cd as a installer not as a ISO. https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows7 Make sure it is SP2 or that you have SP1 and SP2.

You may want to use CPU-Z to get the name and make of your motherboard to find if there is still drivers available on the manufactures web site. If there is download them all.

If not might have to use a program such as I/O Bit Speed something or DriverMax to get drivers.

This will solve your nightmare of not knowing what is on there.

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