intrusive ask.com search

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

We're visiting my father in law for Christmas. He has an old Pentium 4 PC, and I noticed that when I open a new tab in Firefox, it goes to Ask

- there is no address in the address bar, but it appears to be Ask homepage

- it has a bar that says "search ... powered by Ask" over at the right

I have just yesterday removed all toolbars, uninstalled any items he didn't recognize, plus several I recognized as unnecessary. (msconfig, startup)

I then downloaded, updated and ran latest version of Spybot Search and destroy.

I also completely uninstalled, then downloaded & reinstalled latest version of Firefox.

There is no change - it still goes to this strange Ask search instead of the Google home page. (it DOES go to Google when Firefox first launches - just when I open a new tab it now still goes to Ask)

Anyone have any suggestions for how to ultimately get rid of unwanted Ask crap? Thanks so much in advance.

 

[phasseshifter]

go to control panel...go to installed programs and features look in there and see if ..ask.. is in the list.... uninstall it..mabe after that reboot firefox..or the computer..hopfully it should be fixed..you may want to go into prefrencess in fire fox go to the general tab and set the home page to google ...or your page of choice ...also you did not mention which operating system you are using windows of some manner....

 

[ninaholic37]

Also you can try:
1. Type "about:config" in the address bar in Firefox
2. Search for "browser.newtab.url"
3. Change the value to "about:blank", or "www.google.com" or whatever

 

[denis280]

use Ccleaner. startup and programs.disable and delete ask.and open c:windows temp folder select all delete

 

[inachu]

The VP of ASK tried to cry BS on me when an article/interview was done on news.com

I made a comment below the article and what I stated was that over the years more than half of the computers I support that may/might end up with the ask toolbar would have a higher degree of virus/malware infection than pc without the ask toolbar.

The VP cried foul and many others replied to back me up on my claims.

 

[Ketchup]

This should fix it, from: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/963642

Type about:config in the URL bar and hit Enter.
Then verify that you'll be careful.

Type this in the Search at the top browser.newtab.url and then right-click that pref and select Reset. Restart Firefox.

 

[corkyg]

Ask is one of those insidious pieces of software that slithers in to a system like a snake piggy-backing on an update for something else. It is indeed invasive and I treat it like malware.

 

[denis280]

and I treat it like malware.

:thumbsup: you got that right corkyg