# Mozilla Firefox.



## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Aug 11, 2012)

This may need to be moved, I am not sure. It has nothing to do with the website but I felt it needed to be brought up as some of our members use Firefox. Back in January I started using Yahoo Messenger, liked it a lot but in the last month I was finding more and more problems and started searching on line to see if I could correct them. Yahoo was taking over Firefox and not allowing me on sites and my computer had become ten fold slower. I tried getting rid of the Yahoo toolbar. It kept coming back. Well from what I can gather, Yahoo is in trouble and is not a stabel search engine. Firefox bought into them and it is part of there program now. If you run Firefox you CANNOT get rid of Yahoo. I took my computer to friend yesterday and he went through it scanning it and checking on ways to get rid of Yahoo and found none. I am now using Internet Explorer for the time being until Mozilla gets rid of Yahoo. He found over 1200 malicious tracking cookies that Malwarebytes and Avast did not pick up on. He used Super Antispyware. It's free and works really well. If you are not having any troubles keep using Firefox but if you are like I was, getting rid of Firefox is the only way to solve it for now. I hated getting rid of it because I really liked it. Hope this helps and if this needs to be moved by a mod, please do so. And know that I am not bad mouthing Firefox, like I said, I love it, but I cannot deal with the problems I was having with it. If you do have problems and have to change to another browser, most of them will ask if you want to transfer your Favorites or Bookmarks to there browser so it makes it very simple. I hope this is helpful. And I am not trying to scare anyone, just help out. Thanks. 

Brooks


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## Crimea_River (Aug 11, 2012)

Thanks for the heads up Brooks. I switched over to Firefox after I began having problems opening new tabs in IE. Never did get that fixed but FF is working fine for me.


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Aug 11, 2012)

As long as your not using Messenger I don't think you'll have a problem. But I'm not sure. Just a heads up.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Aug 11, 2012)

I use Firefox, but do not have any problem with Yahoo. I don't use the messenger though and I don't have the toolbar.


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Aug 11, 2012)

For some reason, it seems to be a sporadic or regional problem. I have been on some help forums and there are a lot of folks that are really ticked about it. I just know this was the only way I could get rid of it and I hated to do it because I really like FF.


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## GrauGeist (Aug 11, 2012)

Aaron, can you go into your Control Panel, select "Ad or Remove Programs" and uninstall Yahoo Messenger and see if that changes your Firefox?

I should mention that I have FF on this machine (rarely use it, though) and have the search feature shut off. That is to say, I do not have any additional search bar on my FF...address bar only (btw: I have Yahoo messenger installed on this machine).


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Aug 11, 2012)

Dave, it is part of the Firefox program. There is no getting rid of it if you keep Firefox.


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## Wurger (Aug 12, 2012)

Follow that..

*Start Firefox and choose Tools→Add-Ons.*

Firefox responds with a list of add-ons.






*
Select the cantankerous add-on. Click the Disable button, “X” out of the Add-Ons dialog box, and restart Firefox.*

It should help.


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## evangilder (Aug 12, 2012)

You beat me to it, Wojtek. I had a problem with it in IE. When using IE at all, it kept popping up a window that said "This site has a coupon", etc. Annoying as all get out. I disabled the yahoo toolbar in IE and the problem went away.


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## Wurger (Aug 12, 2012)




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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Aug 12, 2012)

It won't let my Add Ons open or I would have done this. I went to open them the other evening and it ran all night and they never opened.


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## evangilder (Aug 12, 2012)

Sounds like something else got into your firefox that caused this, not Firefox itself.


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Aug 12, 2012)

The way it was explained to me and I don't know how true it is but Yahoo has been hacked and this is the cause of the problems. Being that Firefox has bought into Yahoo and incorporated them into there programing means the only way you can get rid of it is to remove Firefox. All I know is my machine is back up to it's speedy old self without these to programs in it. I have been after this problem for over two months now and this is what it took to solve it. I really wish I could've kept Firefox but it just wasn't possible.


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## evangilder (Aug 13, 2012)

Firefox is open source. It is Mozilla, which was part of Netscape at one time. Having a plug-in for a browser does not necessarily indicate buying in to a company or product. There are a lot of technology companies that partner together for a variety of reasons.

If Yahoo has been hacked, as someone claims, it would be all over the news, and laws are in place to inform the public of security breaches. On this, I am sure, as I work in computer networks and have done a fair share of security for a variety of industries. 

Keep in mind that malware will often attach itself to something else like a parasite. In your case, something has gone after your Firefox aggressively. Often, when these types of things happen, you need the super toolbox, or a complete reload. I got one a few years ago that was very aggressive to the point I almost completely wiped out _everything_ on my hard drive, including my data to be sure it was all gone. Along came a friend of mine with the super toolbox. After three solid days with the tools, I finally eradicated the bugger, which piggybacked on several applications and morphed on reboot. It was stubborn and annoying as he!!. But that super toolbox is as dangerous to your data as malware. If you don't use them right, you will be reformatting and kissing all your data good bye. 

That being said, whatever got ahold of your machine may have a cure in the near future as the malware companies catch up. In some cases, a newer version of the application that was getting trashed may even fix it. You could try using Chrome, Safari or Seamonkey to see if they fit your needs for now. One day down the road, you migth try Firfox again on a fresh install, or when you get a new machine one day.


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## Wurger (Aug 13, 2012)

I've been using Firefox for a few years. And I don't have any problems with the net browser. However I don't have the Yahoo messenger installed. 

Aaron, do you know what is the version of the Firefox you have installed?


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## Wurger (Aug 13, 2012)

Ok. ... try to follow one of these tips..

First, close Firefox if it is active. Then, go to C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Shared. There, rename the file npYState.dll to exnpYState.dll (or any other name) or simply delete it.

Check if all is OK now.

If not... deleting the Yahoo Messenger Without Deleting the Yahoo Account



1 Click the Start menu at the bottom of the screen.
2 Click “Control Panel.”
3 Select “Add or Remove Programs” (XP) or “Uninstall a Program" (Vista). If you have Vista or Windows 7 and you do not see an option to "Uninstall a Program," you will find this feature under "Programs and Features" in the "Control Panel."
4 Select "Yahoo! Messenger" on the list of programs that appear.
5 Click “Uninstall” or “Remove.”
6 Click “Finish” when the uninstaller appears and wait for Yahoo! Messenger to be uninstalled. You will see that it is removed from the program list when it finished.

or

Deleting Yahoo Messenger fully...


1 Go to the "Start" menu and click on "Control Panel."
2 Click on the "Add/Remove Programs" icon, scroll down the list and click on "Yahoo! Messenger" to highlight, then click on the "Remove" button.
3 Click on the "Finish" button in the "Yahoo! installation" window to complete the uninstall and restart your computer.
4 Double-click the "My Computer" icon on your desktop, double-click the "C:\" drive and then the "Programs Files" folder. Scroll down the list and delete the "Yahoo" folder.
5 Go to the "Start" menu and click on "Run." Type "regedit" in the search line and press "Enter" to bring up the Windows Registry Editor. Browse to and delete the following registry entry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Yahoo


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Aug 13, 2012)

It's been done, I no longer have Yahoo Messenger or Firefox. I have friend out near the west coast that I use to converse with on Messenger and I miss it. Need to find another messenger service that she's willing to use. I appreciate all the ideas guys. Wurger, when I uninstalled Firefox the first time and reloaded it, I downloaded the newest version and it ran great for a day. But I also reinstalled Yahoo Messenger and it went to pot the next day. I think Eric may be on to something with the morphing virus but I hope not. And I have HiJack This. Which I believe is similar to the Super Toolbox. I have absolutely no idea how to use it. Hopefully I have the problem solved, but if not, I'll be sure and let you know. Thank you again Eric and Wurger.


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## tomo pauk (Dec 2, 2012)

Hi, Aaron,
Don't ment to preach you, but what is actually "Super Antispyware" and "Super Toolbox"? Whenever I see a product that is super-this or super-that, I ran like hell from that. There is no way that your two brand name security tools would miss 1200 malicious files. 
In case your computer does not allow you the straightforward de-installation of a program, be aware. 

This is from person that have had 3 times to pay people to clean the comp because of programs that pretend to find gazzilon of malicious files. And I neve ever install any 'helpful toolbars' for my Firefox or Opera.

You might want to check this out:

SUPERAntiSpyware problem - Wilders Security Forums


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## fubar57 (Dec 2, 2012)

Thanks for the heads up Tomo. I was looking to install that.

Geo


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## Wurger (Dec 2, 2012)

Aaron Brooks Wolters said:


> It's been done, I no longer have Yahoo Messenger or Firefox. I have friend out near the west coast that I use to converse with on Messenger and I miss it. Need to find another messenger service that she's willing to use. I appreciate all the ideas guys. Wurger, when I uninstalled Firefox the first time and reloaded it, I downloaded the newest version and it ran great for a day. But I also reinstalled Yahoo Messenger and it went to pot the next day. I think Eric may be on to something with the morphing virus but I hope not. And I have HiJack This. Which I believe is similar to the Super Toolbox. I have absolutely no idea how to use it. Hopefully I have the problem solved, but if not, I'll be sure and let you know. Thank you again Eric and Wurger.



Glad I have helped.


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Dec 3, 2012)

Thank you Tomo for the link. I have a new hard drive now with Windows 7 and doing a lot better. I still have some small issues but those are due to my ignorance. And I really do appreciate everyone's help.


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