14 replies to this topic

[Oriour]

I accidentally installed yahoo toolbar off of CC during a reinstall and now I can't get rid of it on Firefox browser. I uninstalled the search bar and the updater, but it still sticks around. Can anyone provide any assistance?

edit: Never mind I found out. I had to go to the browser menu and remove that tab from the menu bar, then go to add ons and tell it to uninstall yahoo toolbar on a restart. Still, if there's any additional information that I missed, I'd appreciate hearing it.

[Andavari]

Oriour, on Jul 14 2007, 06:42 PM, said:

Still, if there's any additional information that I missed, I'd appreciate hearing it.

Some of those extensions leave stuff behind in the Firefox prefs.js file. You can optionally and manually clean it, although it isn't a necessity.

To manually clean the prefs.js:

• Make sure Firefox is closed! You should even press CTRL+ALT+DEL to make sure Firefox.exe isn't running!
  
• Click Start->Run and type in (including the quotes) then click OK:
  "%userprofile%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles"
  Then open a profile folder, it may or will end with something like ".default"
  
• When you see prefs.js right-click it and select Copy, then right-click and select Paste. This is to create a backup copy just in case it's needed. It can later be renamed if you break something in Firefox whilst editing prefs.js and need to restore the backup.
  
• Open a Notepad window. Now drag n' drop prefs.js into the Notepad window. Now search for Yahoo Toolbar leftovers, and remove them. Click File->Save once you're done.
  
• Give Firefox a test run to make sure nothing was messed up in the process.
  
• Done.

[Anthony A]

Another thing I do when removing an extension in Firefox is go into about:config and find any entries left behind. There will be some if you make any changes to the extension in it's options. When you find any entries in about:config right click and select "reset". Restart Firefox and those entries will be gone.

[Oriour]

Okay no idea with about config, but thanks for all the additional info. I guess I can leave it alone, but I appreciate the insight and assistance all the same.

[Anthony A]

Oriour, on Jul 15 2007, 11:47 AM, said:

Okay no idea with about config, but thanks for all the additional info. I guess I can leave it alone, but I appreciate the insight and assistance all the same.

Enter about:config in the address bar of Firefox. It will take you to it. Once there you will see hundreds of entries listed alphabetically. Instead of going through them all just type Yahoo Tool Bar in the search box and it will list all entries there for it. If there are any right click them and select reset.

[Oriour]

Anthony A, on Jul 15 2007, 09:42 AM, said:

Enter about:config in the address bar of Firefox. It will take you to it. Once there you will see hundreds of entries listed alphabetically. Instead of going through them all just type Yahoo Tool Bar in the search box and it will list all entries there for it. If there are any right click them and select reset.

ah okay, thanks. Learn something new everyday.

edit: tried the about:config. Yahoo toolbar was not found.

[JDPower]

Andavari, on Jul 15 2007, 09:05 AM, said:

Some of those extensions leave stuff behind in the Firefox prefs.js file. You can optionally and manually clean it, although it isn't a necessity.

To manually clean the prefs.js:

• Make sure Firefox is closed! You should even press CTRL+ALT+DEL to make sure Firefox.exe isn't running!
  
• Click Start->Run and type in (including the quotes) then click OK:
  "%userprofile%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles"
  Then open a profile folder, it may or will end with something like ".default"
  
• When you see prefs.js right-click it and select Copy, then right-click and select Paste. This is to create a backup copy just in case it's needed. It can later be renamed if you break something in Firefox whilst editing prefs.js and need to restore the backup.
  
• Open a Notepad window. Now drag n' drop prefs.js into the Notepad window. Now search for Yahoo Toolbar leftovers, and remove them. Click File->Save once you're done.
  
• Give Firefox a test run to make sure nothing was messed up in the process.
  
• Done.

Thanks for that Andavari, I've never thought to check there. If I ever uninstall an extension I check the profile>extensions folder to make sure nothings left behind (as it sometimes is), but I just discovered some leftovers of an extension in the prefs file so cheers

[Oriour]

While it may not have been in the about, there were leftovers in the prefs that I've since cleaned out. Thanks Andavari for the procedure.

[Oriour]

I was going through a Hijackthis log file when I found an entry:

R3 - URLSearchHook: Yahoo! Toolbar - {EF99BD32-C1FB-11D2-892F-0090271D4F88} - (no file)

Is this safe for deletion, given I've already uninstalled the bar, removed it from add on, cleared the pref, and deleted the folder?

[Andavari]

Oriour, on Jul 16 2007, 09:53 AM, said:

I was going through a Hijackthis log file when I found an entry:

R3 - URLSearchHook: Yahoo! Toolbar - {EF99BD32-C1FB-11D2-892F-0090271D4F88} - (no file)

Is this safe for deletion, given I've already uninstalled the bar, removed it from add on, cleared the pref, and deleted the folder?

Maybe. I'll ask rridgely to look at this question since he knows more about HijackThis.
Edit: I PM'd him to ask, so just wait a bit for an answer.

[rridgely]

Yeah its safe to delete and recommended to do so.

[Oriour]

ah okay, thanks for the reply.

[Oriour]

I was looking through regedit and noticed the entry hkey_local_machine/software/yahoo with two subs of companion and uninstaller (at one point i think there was an installer sub as well, though my eyes and brain has a habit of playing tricks on me, whatever the reason it's gone now anyways). Is the entire yahoo branch safe for removal?

[Andavari]

Oriour, on Aug 18 2007, 04:29 PM, said:

I was looking through regedit and noticed the entry hkey_local_machine/software/yahoo with two subs of companion and uninstaller (at one point i think there was an installer sub as well, though my eyes and brain has a habit of playing tricks on me, whatever the reason it's gone now anyways). Is the entire yahoo branch safe for removal?

As long as you don't have anything else installed by Yahoo I'd say yes. However it's still best to play it on the safe side and export that whole Yahoo entry to a .reg file, and save it for a few days in case it's needed.

[Oriour]

alright, thanks.