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There is no longer a dropdown menue to get rid of Yahoo, please help, it has commandeered my tool bar

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  • Last reply by gnarly1

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The instructions for changing a search engine are no longer valid. There is no longer any way to access a drop down menu for changing search engines. Yahoo has just taken over. I have un-installed and re-installed because of Yahoo and their adds. My computer skills are limited, but I do know they have left no way of choosing another search provider. There is everything Yahoo, but I can get no where with editing my tool bar. Thnx for any help - Lary

The instructions for changing a search engine are no longer valid. There is no longer any way to access a drop down menu for changing search engines. Yahoo has just taken over. I have un-installed and re-installed because of Yahoo and their adds. My computer skills are limited, but I do know they have left no way of choosing another search provider. There is everything Yahoo, but I can get no where with editing my tool bar. Thnx for any help - Lary

Chosen solution

Start Firefox in Safe Mode 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.

You can use the SearchReset extension to reset some preferences to the default values.

Note that the SearchReset extension only runs once and then uninstalls automatically, so it won't show on the "Firefox > Add-ons" page (about:addons).

Try to delete the search.json file and possible search-metadata.json and search.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder to reset the search engines to the default.

Firefox will rebuild the search.json file from the default search engines in the "browser\searchplugins" folder in the Firefox program folder and the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

If you do not keep changes after a restart or otherwise have problems with preferences, see:

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Chosen Solution

Start Firefox in Safe Mode 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.

You can use the SearchReset extension to reset some preferences to the default values.

Note that the SearchReset extension only runs once and then uninstalls automatically, so it won't show on the "Firefox > Add-ons" page (about:addons).

Try to delete the search.json file and possible search-metadata.json and search.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder to reset the search engines to the default.

Firefox will rebuild the search.json file from the default search engines in the "browser\searchplugins" folder in the Firefox program folder and the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

If you do not keep changes after a restart or otherwise have problems with preferences, see:

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Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was pretty sure that I would have to just lose/quit fire fox altogether. I found the file and deleted it; voila! no more yahoo toolbar. Insidious and near impossible for me. Once again, I appreciate the help!