Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

AOL searchbar impossible to remove.

  • 4 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by livearena

livearena
livearena
more options

Before continuing, I've already done the following:

1) I have disabled and uninstalled the AOL toolbar add-on.

2) I have gone to Control Panel on my computer and uninstalled the toolbar.

3) I entered "about:config" into the address bar and re-adjusted all strings relevant to the search bar/address bar(keyword.URL, keyword.enabled, etc.) to DEFAULT/TRUE.

4) I have restarted my browser with all add-ons disabled.

But for some idiotic reason, every time I close my browser and open it again, I use the address bar to search something and this comes up: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/mango_lemons/whatthe_zps6f2fff35.png

And then I go back to about:config and I check what the strings have been reset to: http://imageshack.us/a/img41/5752/aolxxx.png

Does anyone know how I can prevent the the default search to be changed to AOL every time I restart my browser?

Before continuing, I've already done the following: 1) I have disabled and uninstalled the AOL toolbar add-on. 2) I have gone to Control Panel on my computer and uninstalled the toolbar. 3) I entered "about:config" into the address bar and re-adjusted all strings relevant to the search bar/address bar(keyword.URL, keyword.enabled, etc.) to DEFAULT/TRUE. 4) I have restarted my browser with all add-ons disabled. But for some idiotic reason, every time I close my browser and open it again, I use the address bar to search something and this comes up: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/mango_lemons/whatthe_zps6f2fff35.png And then I go back to about:config and I check what the strings have been reset to: http://imageshack.us/a/img41/5752/aolxxx.png Does anyone know how I can prevent the the default search to be changed to AOL every time I restart my browser?

Modified by livearena

Chosen solution

You can check for problems with preferences and rename or delete the prefs.js file and possible numbered prefs-##.js files and a possible user.js file to reset all prefs to the default value.

Read this answer in context 👍 3

All Replies (4)

Giedrius_M
Giedrius_M
more options

You have some sort of search protector in control panel. There are couple of legitimate programs that are installed without your consent with various search hijacking toolbars. Looks like AOL is one of them. Go into control panel. Look for Browser protect or Search -related programs. Uninstall them. Some anti-malware programs detect them, some don't...

livearena
livearena Question owner
more options

Thanks! I removed everything that seemed related to the toolbar (something called continuous.save and save.protect.)

Unfortunately, it still will not configure the search bar as Google.

I also noticed the malware in about:config-- http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/2879/sweetim.png

Since it doesn't appear in the program and features listed on Control Panel, how do I go about removing it?

Modified by livearena

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Chosen Solution

You can check for problems with preferences and rename or delete the prefs.js file and possible numbered prefs-##.js files and a possible user.js file to reset all prefs to the default value.

livearena
livearena Question owner
more options

Thanks, problem solved!