A strange and new browser is there when I open Mozilla and Firefox - how do I get rid please?

[MaggieW]

This happened around a fortnight ago and I had to get a computer person in to sort it out, and now it's happened again so I'm hoping some wise Mumsnetter can help me please...basically a third party browser appears when I launch Firefox or Chrome. It carries advertising and has Snap.do at the top. How do I get rid of this please and get back to normal Firefox etc? TIA.

It's malware. Read more about it here if you're interested. You can remove it yourself; download the free version of www.malwarebytes.org/, install and run it. It's very good and will clean most known malware. Come back if it doesn't work and we'll have another think :)

You also need to figure out where it's coming from or this will keep happening. Things like this usually install alongside something else that you've downloaded or installed from somewhere - any thoughts on what it could be? What were you doing before it appeared both these times?

Thank you Naoko. I'm just about to try your solution. Will keep you posted. Thank you again.

Right, I've downloaded and run the malwarebytes. It came up with a number of things I got it to remove and AVG also came up with two threats, now removed. This has now all been done but when I open Firefox it still comes up with third party google-style page. What do you think my next step should be please?

Hm, stubborn little bugger! Had a bit of a google for you and it is suggested that an ordinary uninstall might actually work. Go to the Control Panel and into the menu that lets you add or remove programs, find snap.do and tell it to uninstall. See if that works. If not, then we may have to go and dig in Firefox and Chrome individually.

OK - thank you again for your help. Have had a look at snap.do and it's not listed. However, I remember last time it apparently came in attached to something else. This started yesterday and there are these things which were installed yesterday Pricegong, Quickshare and Microsoft Office professional edition 2003. I don't know anything about the first two and presume the MO one is an update? Should I uninstall these three things incase it's come in on one of them please?

I would uninstall firefox (do via control panel) and then re-download it. It sounds like you've installed something legitimately which has come with one of those "Would you also like to install our super-duper toolbar and set your homepage to whatever.com?" and you haven't noticed to untick it - very common these days.

Or if you go into the options/tools/settings (whatever it's called) in firefox and change the homepage to google.co.uk or whatever you prefer, and also go into the "manage extensions" part and delete any extensions that you don't use (or just delete all of them) that should clear it up for you.

Remove the first two, leave the MO one, that one's probably legit, the first two almost certainly aren't. I don't think that'll remove your snap.do issue though, they're not legit and they might've hitchhiked in on the same thing but they shouldn't cause the browser hijack. You need to take a good hard look at that machine, what's on it, who uses it and what they install - that is a lot of dodgy addons you've got there!

Just changing the homepage probably won't be enough (if it'll even let you), it'll still be there and it could have any security weakness to be exploited by yet more malware. You need it gone. Looking at the extensions and addons in firefox (and also in chrome) is a good idea, see if there's anything listed there that sounds dodgy (anything you haven't heard of, ask here or google) and turn them off.

I would do a system restore to a time and date when you know the pc was running fine,reinstall malwarebytes and rescan.

OK, I've changed the homepage but can't find the "manage extensions" or extensions but - coudl it be called something else please?

As for who uses it - just me DH the the two DCs, where possibly this has all come from, although they weren't on it the day or so before this most recent episode happened.

Also, Chanatan, how do I do a sytem restore please?
Thanks all again.

system restore,this is for windows 7 but is much the same for xp and vista.

I think system restore is probably overkill. Maybe as a last resort.

Could be add-ons instead of extensions? It's a while since I've used firefox.

A system reinstall would be overkill but using system restore to roll back a couple of days to before the problems started is the way I was taught to deal with problems like this,saves many hours messing about.

I've uninstalled Firefox but have just realised it's also on Internet Explorer and Chrome so really not sure what to do now.

malwaretips.com/blogs/snap-do-toolbar-removal/

I would do all of that apart from hitmanpro which seems pointless as you already have antivirus software.

Brilliant thank you Yoni. I've done all the steps and it seems to have done the trick. Thanks again.

It might be worth adding a new 'admin' account that only you have the password for, and making the existing account(s) not have admin privileges (so that installing new software may fail).

Without pointing fingers at DC, the bulk of problems which have affected clients have been when their DC have used their machine.

Even my nephew when home from Uni would go on some dodgy sites and after the break, my sister would ring me up asking me to get shot of malware (I tend to use LogMeIn to take control of a client's machine {with their permission, of course}, rather than trying to do it via "what do you see" type Q+A sessions, so could usually get shot of a nasty within a fairly short time)