How do I stop Firefox from opening unwanted sites or (inescapable) dialogs

My Firefox, as soon as I open a web page opens either (1) an overlying dialog typically flashing saying I am the 1000000th person or my computer is slow or buy this or (2) another unwanted site in another tab typically trying to sell something. Cases of type (2) are annoying but at least the tab can be deleted but cases of type (1) prevent me from using Firefox at all because the dialog does not have an exit button so I have to stop Firefox to get rid of it. This problem only happens with Firefox - IE never has these problems. I have scanned for malware using 3 different programs and I have tried deleting Firefox and re-installing it (keeping my profile) but the problem is still there. If I knew what the process was I could at least delete the process.
I love my Firefox - please help!

You can check for recently installed suspicious or unknown extensions.
Start Firefox in <u>[[Safe Mode|Safe Mode]]</u> to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).
*Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.<br>
Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.<br>
All these programs have free versions.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.
*Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:<br>http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
*AdwCleaner:<br>http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/<br>http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
*SuperAntispyware:<br>http://www.superantispyware.com/
*Microsoft Safety Scanner:<br>http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
*Windows Defender: Home Page:<br>http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx
*Spybot Search & Destroy:<br>http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
*Kasperky Free Security Scan:<br>http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan
You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.
*Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:<br>http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446
See also:
*"Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

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