getting rid of Yahoo

[wfriedwald]

i did something stupid ... I blundered into some kind of semi-spam trap and now my default search engine is Yahoo, instead of Google, on Safari & firefox. It makes no sense, because when I go into the preferences, "google" is clearly set as the default search engine, but when I do a search, somehow it automatically loads up Yahoo. Have no idea how to get rid of this ... it's like termites or bad breath or something. Help!

 

[velocityg4]

Install and run Malwarebytes for Mac. That'll wipe out most malware.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/

Look through your Extensions in Firefox and Safari. Remove any you did not install. Just don't remove the OpenH264 or Widevine Plugins in Firefox.

 

[wfriedwald]

thank you! I easily found the culprit in Safari, it was an extension called GENERALNETSEARCH, it seems to be hard to get rid of, but I was able to disable it.

finding it somewhat harder to do in Firefox, but I shall keep at it ... now that I have a better idea of where to look.

thanks very much!

w

 

[chrfr]

thank you! I easily found the culprit in Safari, it was an extension called GENERALNETSEARCH, it seems to be hard to get rid of, but I was able to disable it.

finding it somewhat harder to do in Firefox, but I shall keep at it ... now that I have a better idea of where to look.

thanks very much!

w

The Malwarebytes app recommended above will take care of all this for you, and it can be used in its free mode to do so.

 

[wfriedwald]

I admit I was a little over-cautious about using any new program to go digging through my hard drive, but I bit the bullet and tried Malwarebytes - and it seems to have worked perfectly.

So, belated thanks for the recommendation!

w

 

[Lee_Bo]

Yeah, I hate those "bugs" that change your homepage and search engine.