Loaded Firefox on Windows 8.2; when I open it, I get pop-ups demanding that I download other programs. Are these legit?
I just installed Firefox on a Windows 8.1 box. Firefox works great on Windows 7, but I get all sorts of pop-ups on Windows-8. One tells me that I need to update the browser; one tells me that I need to update Java (which I already have); others tell me I have to download other programs that I don't really know why I should want. Are these programs legit? Are they from Mozilla? If not, is there a way to turn them off?
Thanks.
Todas as respostas (4)
That sounds very suspicious. Can you check your download history to see the URL from which you got Firefox?
To see whether one of your extensions is generating the bogus messages, could you try Firefox's Safe Mode, which deactivates them.
You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using
Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled (Flash and other plugins still run)
In the dialog, click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset)
Any difference?
This seems to have solved the problem. I turned off several of the add-ons that I didn't need, and the flurry of demands didn't appear when I restarted Firefox. I don't want to mark the issue as "solved" yet, though, until there's a little more history.
For the record, Firefox is a great program, and I love it. The problem cited here was indeed suspicious, and very frustrating as well.
Many extensions have a Remove button available. For those that don't, you may find them in the Windows Control Panel under Uninstall a Program. If you click the "Installed on" column heading, it may help in discovering whether you got a bundle containing other unwanted programs.
Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
All these programs have free versions.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.
- Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - AdwCleaner:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml - SuperAntispyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/ - Microsoft Safety Scanner:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Windows Defender: Home Page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Spybot Search & Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Kasperky Free Security Scan:
http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan
You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.
- Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446
See also:
- "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked