I wanted to share a fix with all those that may have the same problem that I did. I am using windows 7 and have IE, Chrome and Firefox installed.
The other day my Firefox google search started displaying a crazy number of "ads" at the top and right of the browser window. These ads were so numerous that I had to scroll down just to see some of the real results from the search. Extremely annoying. In addition Youtube videos would not load or play in Firefox.
When I tried Chrome or IE I noticed that Yahoo had become the default search engine. I tried unsuccessfully to delete Yahoo as the default browser without success. It kept popping back up. I loaded Malware bytes and ran the program to delete malware. Still did not fix the problem.
During my search I noticed the file name "spigot" kept getting mentioned. After policing the task manager I noticed that a program called Shieldsoft was running on my computer. I looked for the program in the " uninstall" menu in windows and it did not exist. Curious. The Shieldsoft site says that their software is intended to help users keep settings on their browsers and lists a way to remove the program that does not exist.
FIX: Type %appdata% in the search programs and files window. A search window will appear that contains all the data files for Mozilla and shieldsoft. Click on the shieldsoft file and open it. Inside will be an uninstall option. Click on the uninstall program in the shieldsoft folder. After you have uninstalled shieldsoft delete the entire folder. This fixed the problem with Firefox and the other browsers and all is back to normal. You may need to uninstall firefox as well before you uninstall shieldsoft. If you do then make sure to also delete the appdata folder labeled Mozilla. NOTE: You will lose all your personal data like bookmarks and settings if you do this. Back this info up in another browser such as chrome and then re-import them after you re-install FIrefox. Good luck.
The other day my Firefox google search started displaying a crazy number of "ads" at the top and right of the browser window. These ads were so numerous that I had to scroll down just to see some of the real results from the search. Extremely annoying. In addition Youtube videos would not load or play in Firefox.
When I tried Chrome or IE I noticed that Yahoo had become the default search engine. I tried unsuccessfully to delete Yahoo as the default browser without success. It kept popping back up. I loaded Malware bytes and ran the program to delete malware. Still did not fix the problem.
During my search I noticed the file name "spigot" kept getting mentioned. After policing the task manager I noticed that a program called Shieldsoft was running on my computer. I looked for the program in the " uninstall" menu in windows and it did not exist. Curious. The Shieldsoft site says that their software is intended to help users keep settings on their browsers and lists a way to remove the program that does not exist.
FIX: Type %appdata% in the search programs and files window. A search window will appear that contains all the data files for Mozilla and shieldsoft. Click on the shieldsoft file and open it. Inside will be an uninstall option. Click on the uninstall program in the shieldsoft folder. After you have uninstalled shieldsoft delete the entire folder. This fixed the problem with Firefox and the other browsers and all is back to normal. You may need to uninstall firefox as well before you uninstall shieldsoft. If you do then make sure to also delete the appdata folder labeled Mozilla. NOTE: You will lose all your personal data like bookmarks and settings if you do this. Back this info up in another browser such as chrome and then re-import them after you re-install FIrefox. Good luck.
