Possible virus infection with Firefox - Help!

Posted by: TomK on 21 March 2007

I’ve just started having problems with Firefox (version 1.5 something). Last night a popup appeared saying something about scanning for viruses (didn’t get a chance to read the whole thing before it disappeared) and after that Firefox stopped working properly. It sits in the taskbar and can’t be maximised or restored. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox and done a system restore but it’s made no difference. I use Adaware, Spybot, SpywareBlaster, AVG antivirus and antispyware and Windows Defender, and have done complete scans using all of these but nothing untoward turned up. I’m now using the latest version 2 of Firefox which has a safe mode option (maybe it was always there and I just didn’t notice it). It works ok in safe mode but no matter what I try it won’t work in normal mode. Has anybody seen this? Can anybody suggest what may fix it?

Posted on: 21 March 2007 by Roy T

Did you first save bookmarks, delete your existing profile before reinstalling the latest version (v2.0.0.2) of FF? Once you have a clean install you could then add addons like NoScript and Addblocl Plus and with any luck your surfing should be better protected against a good few additional nasties.

Posted on: 21 March 2007 by TomK

I started in safe mode and reset toolbars and controls. Everything worked fine after that. It appears to have been caused by a bit of dodgy antispyware called Systemdoctor 2006 which was up to no good.