Cannot remove natty.com as home page or search defaults
Downloaded an mp3 file and natty.com installed itself as my default home page and search engine in all web browsers. Manual and default resets don't get it to stop. Any suggestions? Very annoying that these guys take over.
All Replies (8)
Try the following:
- Go to
about:config
in Firefox - Locate the string
browser.startup.homepage
- Change the string's value to your desired homepage
Please report back soon.
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.
Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.
Please report back soon.
I have MS Security Essentials installed and running. Made the change recommended and it was immediately overridden. I'm no expert but it sure looks like there must be some code embedded somewhere that overrides any attempt to change the home page or search engine. Here is one other line that natty.com appears in. keyword.URL;http://www.nattly.com/?q= Thanks for the help.
SO SORRY! It is nattly.com I'm reading some suggestions now that I have the name right. So far no go.
Two way for your home page choice to be overridden are:
(1) extension -- try disabling ALL nonessential or unrecognized extensions here:
orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > Extensions category
If you don't use it every day, disable it.
Usually a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.
(2) user.js file in your settings folder -- see: How to fix preferences that won't save (Note: takes effect at startup, not immediately)
Any improvement?
By the way, there is a way to "lock" out changes to certain Firefox settings. This was designed for use in a business environment but could be abused by malware. To see whether your home page setting is locked this way, you can use the about:config preferences editor.
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste home and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Check browser.startup.homepage to see whether it is bold and says "user set" or is italicized and says "locked" or something similar.
Ilungisiwe
Ensure that you do not have any toolbars for this site installed on any browsers or on your computer's hard drive.
Look for any suspicious program directories in your computer's program folders and list them below.
Hi All, Thanks for all the suggestions. Here's what I did and I'm not sure which fix worked, but it does appear that nattly is removed. After reading all the suggestions I knew changing any setting within any of the browsers wasn't the solution. So I removed any nattly named files from my hard drive, removed or edited any references with regedit, killed all the browser shortcuts and created new ones, rebooted and problem solved. If I remember correctly, ie's shortcut had nattly.com at the end of the shortcut listing. I think the chrome and firefox had the reference buried in the registry. Anyway that was nasty and annoying. I kept thinking that whoever made this annoying whatever it is was collecting info. Thanks again.