Question from a reader: After deploying Mozilla Firefox 4 as a search engine, I continuously have Ask.com at the top of the toolbar. I find this unpleasant and I would like to Google again instead. I also regularly throw Ask.com away, but it keeps coming back. I've since removed everything that has to do with Ask.com from the computer (including the registry), but I still can't get rid of that damn thing. Do you have a thorough solution here?
Our answer: The Ask Toolbar is indeed installed 'secretly' with a lot of free and shareware. Not really secretly of course, in principle you can always uncheck this toolbar during such an installation procedure. But whoever clicks on 'next' too quickly (and the makers count on that), suddenly has that nasty toolbar in his browser (read: Internet Explorer and/or Firefox). This toolbar may have entered your system this way.
In theory, the Ask Toolbar should be uninstallable via the Control Panel (Start / Control Panel / Uninstall a Program, select Ask Toolbar and click the button remove). But if you succeed in removing the toolbar in this way, it does not remove all references to Ask (such as the homepage of your browser). The trouble with this toolbar is that there are all kinds of different versions of it in circulation. Handy tools like AutoClean Ask Remover and AutoClean Multi-Toolbar Remover seem to only work on older versions of Ask Toolbar. You might as well try to see if they work, in case an old Ask Toolbar has landed on your system. The next step could be a thorough uninstaller like RevoUninstaller. Such a program is much more thorough than Windows' baked-in uninstall routine.
The Multi-Toolbar Remover only removes old versions of the Ask Toobar.
No success yet?
Even after going through the above steps, it may still not be possible to remove the toolbar. We can then try to delve further into your specific situation. Mention in the comments below your operating system (also whether it is 32 or 64 bit), the exact version of the browser(s) in which the toolbar appears and the version of the toolbar (you can see the latter by clicking on the right side of the Ask Toolbar clicking Options / Info. In the pop-up that appears, there is a long version number.
Restore search engine
As mentioned, when you remove the Ask Toolbar, not everything is automatically back to how it used to be. To restore your search engine in Internet Explorer 8, click the drop-down menu to the right of the search bar and choose Manage search engines. Select your favorite search engine and click Install as default plug-in. Unnecessary search engines can be removed with the button remove.
In Internet Explorer 9, click the gear icon on the right and choose Manage Plugins / Search Engines. Select your favorite search engine and click Install as default plug-in. Unnecessary search engines can be removed with the button remove.
In Firefox 4, click the drop-down menu to the left of the search bar and choose Manage search engines. Select your favorite search engine and click the button as long Upwards until that search engine is at the top of the list. Unnecessary search engines can be removed with the button remove.
Restore homepage
In Internet Explorer 8, go to Tools / Internet Options. On the tab General tap in the input field at Homepage Enter the address of your favorite home page. In Internet Explorer 9, the menu Additional an icon with a gear. Otherwise it works the same as in IE8.
In Firefox 4, click the orange button at the top left Firefox / Options and there too tap the tab General in the input field at Homepage Enter the address of your favorite home page.
