How do I remove Bing from Firefox?

QPlease can you tell me how to stop Bing from hijacking Firefox and replacing Google as my homepage? I once had a similar problem with Ask, but I gather that one came on the back of free software. John H White

AThis could be down to a onetime hijack by an application you’ve installed, a continual hijack by some illicit Firefox add-on, or a more serious malware infection. Let’s start with the simple stuff. First, visit whatever page you want as your homepage – www.google.co.uk, say. Now open the Firefox menu (click the button with the three horizontal lines, at the top right) and choose Options. On the left, select General and then, under ‘When Firefox starts’, choose ‘Show your home’. Next, under Home Page, click Use Current Page (see screenshot below left). Now restart Firefox. If your chosen homepage appears on a new tab then the problem is likely solved.

If not, check for suspicious add-ons. Open the Firefox menu again but this time choose Add-ons. Now, on the left, click Extensions and have a look through what’s there. We can’t tell you precisely which, if any, installed add-ons might be hijacking your homepage but focus on anything you don’t recognise or otherwise remember installing. There’s a legitimate Microsoft extension that switches the Firefox home page to Bing, and this might’ve been surreptitiously installed by some or other app. Either click Disable or Remove alongside any suspect add-ons (see screenshot below), then restart Firefox to see if this fixes the problem.

If Bing still appears, then make sure your security software is up to date and then run a full scan. If it finds nothing, try Malwarebytes’ free Adwcleaner tool ( www.snipca.com/28021). This is particularly good at identifying and removing browser hijackers.