Hi all, wildly off-topic I know, but as there seems to be some very knowledgeable Mac people here and because this is the only forum I go on thought it'd be worth an ask as the usual Googling and trawling through Mac forums hasn't made any headway and I'm at my wit's end.
Basically, I updated a program a while ago and it seemed to do something funky to browser settings. When I type something into Google (my preferred search engine) the search is hijacked by Yahoo!.
This may well be harmless, but it is irritating, and also a bit alarming and potentially nefarious.
I have deleted the program that did this and all associated files, and I have reset my browser settings/cleared the cache etc etc but this Yahoo! thing still persists. It's really stubborn, adding to my suspicions - anyone know how to get rid of the bloody thing?
Am I understanding this correctly? When you go to the actual Google page in your browser (www.google.co.uk) and type a search query in, the result page comes back from Yahoo?
Or do you mean that when you type into the browser's built-in search field, you get Yahoo results instead of Google results?
(Also: which browser do you tend to use?)
Cheers
Jim
I use Firefox, but it affects all browsers.
It seems to affect only the Google search from the Firefox home page (not the google toolbar search though). Setting the homepage to google.co.uk instead appears to sort it out, but I'm pretty sure I did this before and it promptly switched back to the Yahoo! thing after a while. In any case, I don't like the thought of whatever piece of shit malware that is doing this still being on my computer even if I can circumvent it. Should add, MacScan and similar programs are finding nothing.
I'm assuming that it is not Yahoo itself doing this, but some sketchy third party - presumably Yahoo would draw the line at actually using malware to hijack someones computer and force them to use Yahoo...?
Would removing Firefox and all other browsers and reinstalling them help? (I find the process of properly uninstalling software on a Mac completely baffling though...).
Quote from: radiator on 07 March, 2013, 02:22:52 PM
Would removing Firefox and all other browsers and reinstalling them help? (I find the process of properly uninstalling software on a Mac completely baffling though...).
Generally speaking, uninstalling a piece of software should be as simple as dragging the relevant folder out of the Applications folder, sticking it in the trash and emptying. On the rare occasions it doesn't, try App Cleaner (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/25276/appcleaner).
I think a clean re-install of the browser
should do the job...
Cheers
Jim
Cool, I'll give it a go. Thanks Jim!
If you still have a problem you could try deleting the preference file for Firefox.
~/Library/Preferences/com.mozilla.Firefox.plist IIRC.
Delete this file and restart the browser.