I am getting a net-search as my home page for Mozilla firefox and internet explorer. I have deleted and reinstalled firefox three times. I have deleted and redesignated my homepage three times. keps coming back-an advertisement for some kind of windows 7 security sweep program. How do I get rid of it?
Note: Post moved from a Security News reply to a new thread.
How do I get rid of Net-Search?
Hello there, welcome to the Webroot Community!
What you are seeing and describing is what we on the Community refer to as a PUA. (Potentially Unwanted Application)These are very annoying at best in that they cause pop-us, redirect your browser home page, and other behavior that may slow down the computer and direct ads your way, but they are not actually doing anything bad like damaging files or stealing information. Often they are installed intentionally by you the user as browser add-ons for various tasks such as quick search tools.. but they also come with the result of added annoying pop-ups and ads. Other times they 'piggy back' with other software that you installed, or try to 'sneak' onto your system entirely.
WSA does detect and remove many PUA's, and more are being added, but WSA does not detect all of them. A simple browser add-on with PUA behavior that is easy to identify and easy to remove is not likely to be detected and removed by WSA. Those that are intentionally difficult to locate and remove are. Please see THIS LINK for more information regarding Webroot's stance on these annoying programs.
The best thing to do is to submit a Trouble Ticket and ask Webroot Support to take a look and remove these for you. There is NO CHARGE for this for valid WSA license holder.
Also, we have had a lot of discussion regarding these recently, and I have posted an Idea for Webroot to consider asking them to increase PUA detection. The more users that need help removing a particular PUA the more likely and faster that PUA will be added to detection.
I hope this helps!
What you are seeing and describing is what we on the Community refer to as a PUA. (Potentially Unwanted Application)These are very annoying at best in that they cause pop-us, redirect your browser home page, and other behavior that may slow down the computer and direct ads your way, but they are not actually doing anything bad like damaging files or stealing information. Often they are installed intentionally by you the user as browser add-ons for various tasks such as quick search tools.. but they also come with the result of added annoying pop-ups and ads. Other times they 'piggy back' with other software that you installed, or try to 'sneak' onto your system entirely.
WSA does detect and remove many PUA's, and more are being added, but WSA does not detect all of them. A simple browser add-on with PUA behavior that is easy to identify and easy to remove is not likely to be detected and removed by WSA. Those that are intentionally difficult to locate and remove are. Please see THIS LINK for more information regarding Webroot's stance on these annoying programs.
The best thing to do is to submit a Trouble Ticket and ask Webroot Support to take a look and remove these for you. There is NO CHARGE for this for valid WSA license holder.
Also, we have had a lot of discussion regarding these recently, and I have posted an Idea for Webroot to consider asking them to increase PUA detection. The more users that need help removing a particular PUA the more likely and faster that PUA will be added to detection.
I hope this helps!
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