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
• Hitman Pro
• ESET Online Scanner

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

For the ads popups you can also try ABP Addon

Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Conduit will install with other software even if you interrupt the installation and tell it not to install conduit. It is a persistent pest, which rides often on installations of bonafide programs from what appear to be the official sites. I recently needed to install Chrome due to formula parsing issues and found that even though I shut down the process seconds after launch, I was stuck with Conduit. Before you go to the trouble above, which did not work on my desktop (Conduit continued to override my home page setting and the untrusted site notification errors continued. The CSS of some sites was disabled, causing them to appear as lines of text ) using a restore point to return to a version prior to the download is a sure thing.

If not, I would suggest first going with Malwarebytes (which detected something like 33 files and registry entries), then changing the settings on Firefox and anything else it impacted, then removing the program using the removal tools in Windows Control Panel or whatever Mac has for the process. Finally do a search of the computer and remove all instances of conduit, being very cautious not to remove your conduits for Apple products or for your email programs. Restart your computer and see what remains. These process are well documented by other contributors. Finally clear you cache and recent history. Conduit has a predatory process and is truly malware. It is unfortunate that there seem at this point to be no laws to prevent their behavior. You can also remove conduit by hand from the registry (type "regedit in the start box in windows, click search for conduit, and be very careful what you remove, as there are several necessary processes which also go under the name of conduit.) If you decide to wage this, you absolutely must back up the registry first. Even then it is not advisable unless you are familiar with the registry.

Whenever you get a message / popup that software / files need to be updated,

DO NOT USE ANY OF THE PROVIDED LINKS.

While this may be a legitimate message, it could also be Malware or a Virus. Any time you want or need to check for upgrades, go to the web site of the True Owner of the program in question. For example, to check out Firefox, go to Mozilla.org or Firefox In Any Language.

Actually, I needed to download Chrome and googled to a site that appeared for all the world to be legitimate. It was not. The affair is over after about five hours of fuss, but it was unsettling. Even uninstalling all browsers and reinstalling them had no effect. Conduit left something like 33 files and registry entries behind after being removed. When those were removed it reinstalled itself and continued to corrupt browsing. There is definitely a lesson learned in that. On the other hand, considering that Google is the source of Chrome, why is a site with malware listed in Google search for Chrome before Google's own site? (I do not like Chrome, but it is the only browser which consistently resolves mathjax formulas. Hint to the Mozilla people).