Cannot remove Foxit toolbar

[JerryFerreira]

As a recommendation from someone who helped me with malware, I installed Foxit Reader. Unfortunately, it also installs a toolbar which you can't uncheck when installing the Reader.

I like the Reader a lot, but can't uninstall the Toolbar on my second computer. When I go to Add/Remove programs, select Foxit Toolbar, Remove, a message shows that "All internet browser windows should be closed..."

I don't have any internet browser windows open.

Can someone help?

Thank you.

 

[bobcat]

IE8 > Tools > Manage Add-ons > Toolbars and Extensions
Find, select and disable the Foxit toolbar.
Close the IE and try again to uninstall the toolbar.

 

[JerryFerreira]

Same results

Thanks so much for replying Bobcat.

I disabled the toolbar as you said, and the message is still saying that "All internet browser windows should be closed..."

 

[raybay]

Use a simple Registry editor such as RegClean, Advanced Registry Cleaner, or similar reg editor found at MajorGeeks.com

But your problem is a common one with FoxIt... had you tried contacting the people at Foxit?

 

[JerryFerreira]

Windows Install Clean Up

I ended up using Microsoft's Windows Install Clean Up utiltiy and it took care of the Foxit (Ask) Toolbar.

Thanks for all your help everyone.

 

[raybay]

Thank you for the update. Now many of us have another tool we can use for a variety of similar tasks.

 

[bobcat]

Well, it's nice when people who start a thread come back with feedback, something they don't all do unfortunately. So I'm glad JerryFerreira's problem has been solved, well done.

 

[Maximillio]

I am using Windows 7 64-bit. I found the Ask.com designers of the toolbar disabled the ability to disable the toolbar. A neat trick which should immediately flag it as spyware in my opinion. Anyone who thinks their toolbar is so important that it cannot be removed should never be allowed on a system in the first place. I do not understand why the developer has control over whether or not their software can be removed.
Anyway, rant over. I went to Tools|Add-Ons, and right-clicked on the add-on in question (since Disable was grayed out). I clicked on the More Information item in the drop-down and recorded the first 10 or so digits of the GUID. I then opened regedit and searched for those 10 digits and deleted everything associated with them. The More Information item also showed me a directory under Program Files(x86)\Ask.Com or some such. I went to my Program Files (x86) directory, and after closing IE I removed that whole directory.

I restarted IE and it's now thankfully gone. The toolbar was crashing my Explorer and interfering with my JOB. Whoever wrote it is a hack who needs to stay away from a computer keyboard for the rest of his miserable life. I wasn't even USING any of the features of the toolbar and it was blowing up about every 5 minutes.

 

[raybay]

Yes, I see what you mean. ASK is one of the top trouble makers for our clients... and it installs in trickly and unfair ways... evil might be a good word for it.