Trovi?
September 12, 2014 10:33 AM Subscribe
Is my computer hijacked? I downloaded what I thought was an update this morning, and now my Firefox "start" page is a search engine called Trovi. What have I done and how can I undo it?
Best answer: Lavasoft (makers of Ad-Aware) on Trovi & how to uninstall it.
posted by johnofjack at 10:46 AM on September 12, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by johnofjack at 10:46 AM on September 12, 2014 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: chocolate pickle, I am running Windows 7 Home Premium. (I'm your grandmother.)
posted by tizzie at 11:01 AM on September 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by tizzie at 11:01 AM on September 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I downloaded the AdAware uninstaller, and it won't run. A system message says I don't have permission to access it.
posted by tizzie at 11:03 AM on September 12, 2014
posted by tizzie at 11:03 AM on September 12, 2014
Try running it in admin mode. Should be a right click menu option if I remember my Windows sys admin correctly.
posted by COD at 11:14 AM on September 12, 2014
posted by COD at 11:14 AM on September 12, 2014
Response by poster: COD, how would you say that like you were trying to help your grandmother over the phone? I am not sure what you mean (sorry!)
posted by tizzie at 11:19 AM on September 12, 2014
posted by tizzie at 11:19 AM on September 12, 2014
Response by poster: I did a reset on Firefox, and now the trovi page looks like it's gone, but is it really gone?
posted by tizzie at 11:20 AM on September 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by tizzie at 11:20 AM on September 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
Best answer: My standard starting point when dealing with malware is to run a MalwareBytes scan (instructions for doing that are here). Hopefully that takes care of it; if not, you might be dealing with something more malicious.
Once you've cleaned it off, you can change Firefox's home page and search settings, or reset firefox entirely.
On preview, it looks like you already did the firefox reset, but I'd still recommend the MalwareBytes scan, just to make sure there's nothing lingering.
posted by Aleyn at 11:23 AM on September 12, 2014
Once you've cleaned it off, you can change Firefox's home page and search settings, or reset firefox entirely.
On preview, it looks like you already did the firefox reset, but I'd still recommend the MalwareBytes scan, just to make sure there's nothing lingering.
posted by Aleyn at 11:23 AM on September 12, 2014
Find the icon for the Malware uninstaller and right click on it. On the popup menu, select "Run as Administrator". If it asks you for a password, enter it.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:27 PM on September 12, 2014
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:27 PM on September 12, 2014
Response by poster: Thank you, everyone. I think I've got it sorted.
posted by tizzie at 12:42 PM on September 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by tizzie at 12:42 PM on September 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
The same thing happened to me this afternoon. Malwarebytes got rid of it.
posted by therealshell at 7:31 PM on September 12, 2014
posted by therealshell at 7:31 PM on September 12, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
Samsara's page
What OS are you running?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:40 AM on September 12, 2014 [2 favorites]