A reader just experienced a puzzling thing regarding her browser. “Recently Chromium appeared on my computer, as a program and also in the start-up menu. I did not order it to my knowledge and don’t want it. I removed it totally from my system. At the same time Bing pops up when I go to the internet and not Firefox, I don\’t mind that as much since I like the Bing screensavers and the topics for the day are OK, but I could do without them. Is this what caused me to have Chromium?”
I can tell you that Bing as your home page in Firefox and Chromium are in no way connected under normal circumstances. Bing is not a browser. In this case, it’s likely your home page or your default search engine. Chromium isn’t connected to either Bing or Firefox. Chromium is an open-source version of Google Chrome. It’s a stripped- down version of Chrome. But there are fake versions of Chrome that are actually malware. If you didn’t install Chromium, it’s likely that this is a piece of malware. That makes me wonder if the homepage you’ve been directed to is legitimately Bing or a fake Bing set up by malware that redirects your search engine and homepage. So here’s what we’re going to do.
Go to add-remove programs and get rid of Chromium and anything else recently installed that you didn’t approve. Open Firefox, click the three-line menu button and choose Add-ons to check for recent installations you didn’t approve.
Click remove to get rid of anything unwanted.
Now to make sure you have the homepage and default search engine you like, click the options button from the drop-down menu.
First, click on General on the far left. Under Startup, you’ll want to select what shows up when you open your browser and select a homepage. Even if you want Bing, type in the address yourself to make sure some type of malware hasn’t directed you to a spoof site.
Now, choose Search at the left.
You can then choose your default search engine.
I hope this helps get things back to the way you like them.
~ Cynthia