Hijacked by Yahoo search engine

ron525 · 14. Dec 2011, 08:21 AM

Recently my Google search bars have been hijacked by the Yahoo search engine, I have searched the net and have followed instructions for the fix but none have worked, this includes about:config which did have yahooas the default. Reset it and ended up with a blank hunted around and found the google url put it in but still yahoo.
I have searched C drive tring to find it found 8 items. Some of them had Winutilities as part of their file name ? thought it may be connected to this progam so deleted it didnt work.
I am using windows 7 and Firefox as my browser help would be greatly appreciated

ron525

Concerned User · 14. Dec 2011, 11:57 AM

Please check whether you have any yahoo toolbar addons in your firefox "addons manager". If so, disable it, restart firefox and try resetting your home page.

Also did you check your searchbar options and try to change it back to Google?

ron525 · 14. Dec 2011, 01:22 PM

I have never had Yahoo in addons manager nor in the search bar you pitured, however i am able to use google the searchbar shown but not the one on the top left of Firefox and not the one in the centre of the google/firefox start page also the word google has disappeared from the start page.

Concerned User · 14. Dec 2011, 03:37 PM

You could have already tried out these about:config settings. But here goes, type about config and see if these settings have been changed to those given below:

Type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Type keyword.url in the Filter: box. In the search results, right-click keyword.url and choose Reset. If that option is grayed out, then the setting is already at the default value.

Type browser.search in the Filter: bar. In the search results, right-click all items that have the status "User set" and choose Reset.

Check for these scenarios before trying out a firefox safe mode (explained later):

Some programs which you might have installed in the past might have given you an option to set the default home page to yahoo search for your browser. You might want to check that out before trying out any other step.

If this does not work out then:

1. You should start Firefox in the "safe mode". You can do this by selecting the firefox icon on your start menu and right clicking on the "Firefox safe mode" option

2. Do not check any of the five boxes under "You can make some or all of these changes permanent" that you see. Click on the option "Continue in safe mode" which will disable all your addons, reset all your user preferences to default temporarily and then try changing your home page options.

3. Continue with your regular browsing for some time and then try accessing your home page again. If you are able to access it properly, then one of your addons could be the reason.

4. Post back to this thread with your findings.

ron525 · 15. Dec 2011, 09:29 AM

Yes I have done the about:config it had yahoo as the string value I reset it to default and nothing came up, so I put this in
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-...lient&gns=1&q=
as I had read elswhere to use this as the string.
I had not done the browser.search and found it had something which included the words greentree, I set the default and it changed to the addons mozilla string the rest were alright.
I never had a yahoo home page and have been careful when installing programs not to get adware.
I have already tried safe mode but tried again I am not sure what you mean to reset my user preferences to default.
I went into options and checked, Mozilla Firefox Start Page was still listed as my home page (it is greyed out)
I then carried on browsing, when I went back to see if my home page was restored with the google name and search bar it had not changed and the search bar still used yahoo but I noticed that the description in loading in the task bar had less information than before.

Concerned User · 15. Dec 2011, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ron525

Yes I have done the about:config it had yahoo as the string value I reset it to default and nothing came up, so I put this in
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-...lient&gns=1&q=
as I had read elswhere to use this as the string.
I had not done the browser.search and found it had something which included the words greentree, I set the default and it changed to the addons mozilla string the rest were alright.
I never had a yahoo home page and have been careful when installing programs not to get adware.
I have already tried safe mode but tried again I am not sure what you mean to reset my user preferences to default.
I went into options and checked, Mozilla Firefox Start Page was still listed as my home page (it is greyed out)
I then carried on browsing, when I went back to see if my home page was restored with the google name and search bar it had not changed and the search bar still used yahoo but I noticed that the description in loading in the task bar had less information than before.

@ ron525: Take a look at the screenshot, if a user preference has been modified manually by you or an addon, it will say "user set".

If you need to reset them to the default settings, you need to right click and select the option "Reset". Please check whether the about:config settings that have been mentioned are in their default values. If not right click and reset them.

Instead of using a very long user string (http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-...lient&gns=1&q=) , could you just try out "http://www.google.com/ncr" or even "http://www.google.com/" for the home page stuff?
(this could not be the reason, but worth trying).

keyword.url and browser.search are the about:config values that need to be reset to their default. If it works out, okay. If not, you could try the following options.

The default "Home Page" option will be grayed out. Just checked and when you click on the words "Mozilla Firefox Start Page", they disappear and you should be able the home page option:

If you still cannot change your "home page" options (due to the greyed out issue), this could possibly mean:

1. A corrupt firefox profile

2. some conflict with an addon/toolbar/or in some cases, antivirus software installs Browser help objects which reset home pages etc. (please post a list of all your addons)

3. some kind of malware/spyware hijacking the home page (what antivirus product(s) do you have?update them and do a complete scan and see if it finds any viruses etc).

Am assuming that you are using Firefox 8.0.1 (the latest stable version) in Windows 7?

If no virus/malware turns up, then a corrupt profile could be the problem.

Which would mean, you would have to do a clean (re)install of Firefox, backing up only the essentials like bookmarks, cookies and passwords. Let's deal with that later.

ron525 · 16. Dec 2011, 09:18 AM

Sorry I have taken so long to reply have had trouble with loging in, re tried everything nothing changed so I went ahead and backed up my bookmaks. Uninstalled firefox doing a deep clean with revo and downloaded it again, I am using beta 9 but the issue may have been around since v6.
Funny thing I only backed up the bookmarks but when I downloaded a fresh version everything came back as I had it set up even had beta 9 loaded, now my start page is working, google is listed next to the search bar and yahoo is gone.
I went into aboutconfig to see what changed and found keyword url does not have a string value and is set at default, i don't care it is working properly now.

Thank you for the time you have put in to help me it is very much appreciated.

Concerned User · 16. Dec 2011, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ron525

Sorry I have taken so long to reply have had trouble with loging in, re tried everything nothing changed so I went ahead and backed up my bookmaks. Uninstalled firefox doing a deep clean with revo and downloaded it again, I am using beta 9 but the issue may have been around since v6.
Funny thing I only backed up the bookmarks but when I downloaded a fresh version everything came back as I had it set up even had beta 9 loaded, now my start page is working, google is listed next to the search bar and yahoo is gone.
I went into aboutconfig to see what changed and found keyword url does not have a string value and is set at default, i don't care it is working properly now.

Thank you for the time you have put in to help me it is very much appreciated.

Perfect! Regarding the clean uninstall, I think that your profile folder was not removed properly. A manual delete might have worked out. I have personally experienced this myself. Anyways, glad that things are okay

14. Dec 2011, 08:21 AM	#1 (permalink)
ron525 Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Victoria Australia Posts: 5	Hijacked by Yahoo search engine Recently my Google search bars have been hijacked by the Yahoo search engine, I have searched the net and have followed instructions for the fix but none have worked, this includes about:config which did have yahooas the default. Reset it and ended up with a blank hunted around and found the google url put it in but still yahoo. I have searched C drive tring to find it found 8 items. Some of them had Winutilities as part of their file name ? thought it may be connected to this progam so deleted it didnt work. I am using windows 7 and Firefox as my browser help would be greatly appreciated ron525

14. Dec 2011, 03:37 PM	#4 (permalink)
Concerned User Editor Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: இந்தியா, सिन्धु, India Posts: 324	You could have already tried out these about:config settings. But here goes, type about config and see if these settings have been changed to those given below: Type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Type keyword.url in the Filter: box. In the search results, right-click keyword.url and choose Reset. If that option is grayed out, then the setting is already at the default value. Type browser.search in the Filter: bar. In the search results, right-click all items that have the status "User set" and choose Reset. Check for these scenarios before trying out a firefox safe mode (explained later): Some programs which you might have installed in the past might have given you an option to set the default home page to yahoo search for your browser. You might want to check that out before trying out any other step. If this does not work out then: 1. You should start Firefox in the "safe mode". You can do this by selecting the firefox icon on your start menu and right clicking on the "Firefox safe mode" option 2. Do not check any of the five boxes under "You can make some or all of these changes permanent" that you see. Click on the option "Continue in safe mode" which will disable all your addons, reset all your user preferences to default temporarily and then try changing your home page options. 3. Continue with your regular browsing for some time and then try accessing your home page again. If you are able to access it properly, then one of your addons could be the reason. 4. Post back to this thread with your findings. Last edited by Concerned User; 14. Dec 2011 at 04:08 PM.

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14. Dec 2011, 11:57 AM	#2 (permalink)
Concerned User Editor Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: இந்தியா, सिन्धु, India Posts: 324	Please check whether you have any yahoo toolbar addons in your firefox "addons manager". If so, disable it, restart firefox and try resetting your home page. Also did you check your searchbar options and try to change it back to Google?

14. Dec 2011, 01:22 PM	#3 (permalink)
ron525 Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Victoria Australia Posts: 5	I have never had Yahoo in addons manager nor in the search bar you pitured, however i am able to use google the searchbar shown but not the one on the top left of Firefox and not the one in the centre of the google/firefox start page also the word google has disappeared from the start page.

15. Dec 2011, 09:29 AM	#5 (permalink)
ron525 Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Victoria Australia Posts: 5	Yes I have done the about:config it had yahoo as the string value I reset it to default and nothing came up, so I put this in http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-...lient&gns=1&q= as I had read elswhere to use this as the string. I had not done the browser.search and found it had something which included the words greentree, I set the default and it changed to the addons mozilla string the rest were alright. I never had a yahoo home page and have been careful when installing programs not to get adware. I have already tried safe mode but tried again I am not sure what you mean to reset my user preferences to default. I went into options and checked, Mozilla Firefox Start Page was still listed as my home page (it is greyed out) I then carried on browsing, when I went back to see if my home page was restored with the google name and search bar it had not changed and the search bar still used yahoo but I noticed that the description in loading in the task bar had less information than before.

16. Dec 2011, 09:18 AM	#7 (permalink)
ron525 Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Victoria Australia Posts: 5	Sorry I have taken so long to reply have had trouble with loging in, re tried everything nothing changed so I went ahead and backed up my bookmaks. Uninstalled firefox doing a deep clean with revo and downloaded it again, I am using beta 9 but the issue may have been around since v6. Funny thing I only backed up the bookmarks but when I downloaded a fresh version everything came back as I had it set up even had beta 9 loaded, now my start page is working, google is listed next to the search bar and yahoo is gone. I went into aboutconfig to see what changed and found keyword url does not have a string value and is set at default, i don't care it is working properly now. Thank you for the time you have put in to help me it is very much appreciated.