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How do I get rid of browser virus called Iminent, which installs as add-on, when remove button is disabled?

  • 19 replies
  • 43 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by anartist

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I have firefox 20.0.1

This iminent thing must have ridden in on some download but it is all over the browser trying to put up spammy stuff in facebook, gmail, pinterest. I t may be partially blocked by some other add-ons like adblock-plu or better privacy, but it is there creating spurious toolbars on all my social sites and with little popout side windows.

I ran Malwarebytes and it found nothing.

I tried to follow these instructions from http://botcrawl.com/how-to-remove-the-search-iminent-search-the-web-hijacker-virus/#Firefox to remove it: Step 1: Open Firefox, and navigate to Tools -> Add-ons (Ctrl+Shift+A). Step 2: Select Extensions and find the particular Search Iminent Search The Web Toolbar extension, and click disable and remove.

BUT the "remove" button was absent.

I tried to follow these instructions to remove Iminent cookie: How to block the Iminent.com cookie 1.From the Tools menu, select Options 2.In the upper section of the Options window, click Privacy 3.In the Cookies tab, click Exceptions 4. In the new Exceptions – Cookies window, enter Iminent.com in the Address of Website field and click Disable.

BUT there was no "cookie tab."

I have firefox 20.0.1 This iminent thing must have ridden in on some download but it is all over the browser trying to put up spammy stuff in facebook, gmail, pinterest. I t may be partially blocked by some other add-ons like adblock-plu or better privacy, but it is there creating spurious toolbars on all my social sites and with little popout side windows. I ran Malwarebytes and it found nothing. I tried to follow these instructions from http://botcrawl.com/how-to-remove-the-search-iminent-search-the-web-hijacker-virus/#Firefox to remove it: Step 1: Open Firefox, and navigate to Tools -> Add-ons (Ctrl+Shift+A). Step 2: Select Extensions and find the particular Search Iminent Search The Web Toolbar extension, and click disable and remove. BUT the "remove" button was absent. I tried to follow these instructions to remove Iminent cookie: How to block the Iminent.com cookie 1.From the Tools menu, select Options 2.In the upper section of the Options window, click Privacy 3.In the Cookies tab, click Exceptions 4. In the new Exceptions – Cookies window, enter Iminent.com in the Address of Website field and click Disable. BUT there was no "cookie tab."

All Replies (19)

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hello anartist, have a look into the windows control panel / programs section if there's any entry related to the adware that you can remove.

for more possible solutions please also refer to Cannot remove an add-on (extension or theme)

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Phillipp, am trying it now. Hope it does not resist uninstallation by installing some crap as it exits. It didn't go willingly and opened up the website on the browser. Now to reboot . . .

Modified by anartist

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Just as an FYI, we are working on blocking Iminent from Firefox for other users in the future, so hopefully this won't happen again.

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Thank you, for all of us users!

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I tried removing it, through Control Panel, and it is still there.

You may have to try physical going in and Killing it... I run off of Vista by the way. ^_^

Also it seems to have a habit of wanting to be on all your browsers you use most often such as Chrome, and Opera too.

I think it would be a great help if you got all the companies together and made a Fix for all Browsers, not just yours, because it seems it could jump back to Mozilla if you only fix yours...


- Changing the World One Idea at a Time - Ravonies.

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I just tried a Direct Delete after uninstalling I will tell you if it works.

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Ok A Direct Delete Works.... - Direct Delete.... AKA, Manual Uninstall and/or Finding any remains and Deleting them...

So Basically.... and I hope this works for other Computers with other OS's besides Vista....

1. Use Control Panel to Uninstall it - Then clear the icon from there. 2. Search for it in your programs - IE... open start, Type "Iminent" (So far works for Vista) - Delete It... 3. Do it again to find any thing you missed. - Sometimes a Shortcut or straggler will be left... KILL IT. 4. Clean out the Cache of all other other browsers with the cookie... - Seeing if this last step will work right now. 5. Recycle Bin Empty. And now your computer should be free of Iminent...

This should work for your Browser.... Disable THEN uninstall it from Add-Ons

HEY MOZILLA PEOPLE! Can you Confirm this Solution?

Modified by Ravonies

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I finally went to the Iminent website and sent these jerks an email through their contact us page. They sent me an uninstall tool to uninstall all Iminent software.

I think this Iminent was attached to some update I made and didn't notice it. When I find out, I will be getting rid of that entire program too.

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Good God is it back T.T my kill worked for the basic part of it but it is back, overiding my homepage, Searches, and Browser pretty much.

Solution failed.... looking into the above users solution ^_^

I hope it will help me.

Modified by Ravonies

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Extensions that do not have a "Remove" button are installed by other software and are not under control of the Firefox extension manager.
Such globally installed extensions are usually found via a registry scan or are installed in a location that Firefox scans for installed extensions.

Extensions installed this way need to be removed via the settings (options/preferences) of the program that has added this extension or you need to uninstall this program via the Control Panel.
In Firefox you an only disable such an extension.
Otherwise you would have to remove the registry key that makes Firefox install this extension.
Be careful with editing the registry as there is NO UNDO possible: all changes are applied immediately.

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Thanks. I've bookmarked that page on extensions & registry.

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I didn't even realize that I had Iminent installed, so I don't know when or how it appeared. I simply did as the first instructions said: Go to Tools, Add-ons, then select Extensions and there it was. I was given the Options to Disable or Remove it and did so.

  Here's something else I just realized: My Twitter account has had (for a few weeks) annoying Emoticons right below the "Compose New Tweet" dialogue box, and an annoying little red balloon on my home page. I have no clue how the Emoticons got there and was trying to remove them today after I got rid of another annoying thing on Twitter: Intermittently and periodically without me doing anything, suddenly my Twitter Home Page would go to a page that the browser tab said was for "Adam (undefined) on Twitter". And I would purportedly be on the home page for "Adam" with an Oval Face for the avatar. These two annoying items were on my laptop and I just checked and BOTH have been removed from my Twitter home page, meaning the Emoticons AND hopefully the page switching to the "Adam (undefined) on Twitter" home page.
  So, it appears that those two items were also caused by that Iminent Add-on, just to alert anyone else who's had this problem.
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Yes all that happened to me [but on FB as I rarely use twitter] . It was browser hijacking. I even commented about it on FB but no one saw the images except me.

Modified by anartist

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Moderator removed link that references paid software that users may not necessarily need.

I have to say Iminent Search is a parasitic browser hijacker and search.iminent.com redirect is very annoying.

 I searched for a good browser redirect removal method on google a few weeks ago and found a feasible easy way. One easy way to remove Iminent is run a free antivirus tool called blank I still bookmarked the 

feasible removal guide, it's on definitely it will helps you to solve these browser hijacker problems completely.

Modified by Shawn

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Thank you. bruce24, I will certainly keep that handy! It was so babbling for so long and asking for help on FB when no one could see it but me [see screengrabs attached] made me feel a little dotty

Modified by anartist

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2nd image

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3rd image

Modified by anartist