# Is my computer infected?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 8, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568 "2015-07-08T12:32:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568/1 "2015-07-08T12:32:15Z")
Symptom: every morning when I sit down and click on the Mozilla icon at the bottom (I am running a Win-7 machine) there is a second Mozilla window open and it contains an ad. Usually for a cheap I-phone, but sometimes something else. When I click on the x to close it, I am asked if I really want to leave this site. I click on yes and it goes away. Until the next morning. As far as I can tell, there is no other symptom of infection.
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### Author:  [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2015, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568/2 "2015-07-08T12:42:52Z")
You probably have some adware or other minor malware on the computer. Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ is a good tool for getting rid of such annoyances.
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### Author:  [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2015, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568/3 "2015-07-08T18:34:14Z")
What’s your home page? It’s possible that whoever it is has started selling pop-up advertising.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2015, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568/4 "2015-07-08T22:00:30Z")
Google is my home page. But the thing is that it opens a separate copy of Mozilla, not just a new tab. I will try Ad-aware.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2015, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568/5 "2015-07-09T00:18:44Z")
I put in ad-aware and now new tabs open in an ad-aware search which is NOT what I want. Until now, I got a display of my most frequently visited pages and this has disappeared. There doesn’t seem to be any way to disable this. I am not sure the cure isn’t worse than the disease.
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### Author:  [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568/6 "2015-07-09T05:16:05Z")
Sounds like a browser hijack. Sometimes these hijacks are difficult to remove. This has happened to me in the past as well. What I will do is try the standard anti-spyware/malware software to remove it. Occasionally this does not work. Or I will try to remove it manually.
My strategy revolves around googling the symptoms, as you have described in this thread, looking to actually name the adware hijack.
Then it’s a question of googling the name and following instructions of those who have passed before you. Anyway, that’s my methodology. If all else fails, I have backup images of my C: drive to fall back on.
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### Author:  [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568/7 "2015-07-09T14:48:45Z")
The best thing I’ve found to remove difficult junkware is [ComboFix](http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix). It’s not a pretty program but it works when other adware removers fail.
The detailed instructions will guide you through it. You can probably safely ignore most of the warnings _ **except** _ for the one that says “Windows 8.1 and Windows 2000 are NOT supported by ComboFix.”
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### Author:  [@Curid1992](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Curid1992)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2015, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568/8 "2015-07-10T10:14:47Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> I put in ad-aware and now new tabs open in an ad-aware search which is NOT what I want. Until now, I got a display of my most frequently visited pages and this has disappeared. There doesn’t seem to be any way to disable this. I am not sure the cure isn’t worse than the disease.
I have Ad Aware (admittedly, an older version) on one of my computers and that doesn’t happen… Did Ad Aware install a search toolbar or change your homepage?
On Firefox you should easily be able to change the search engine (via the settings) back to Google/Bing/whatever is your preferred, and you should also be able to remove any toolbars that have been added via the Add/Remove Programs section in the control panel.
Or you could try IOBit’s Uninstaller program - that shows you any toolbars/addons you may have and can uninstall them for you.
With regards to your initial problem - best bet is to run a scan with an anti malware program and see what happens. If it still causes problems then uninstall and reinstall Firefox.
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### Author:  [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2015, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568/9 "2015-07-10T10:55:10Z")
Open Internet Explorer. Same hacked behaviour? If so, just fixing Firefox ill not help.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-computer-infected/724568/10 "2015-07-11T01:14:52Z")
Ad-aware has not blocked this pop-up. I guess it is not a pop-up since it opens a new Firefox browser window. Although I made Google my only search engine, Ad-aware still takes over every new tab. So I am worse off than before.