Don't Like Google Toolbar - Can I Remove It?

[hannon4you]

Ah, I'm and old guy but new guy on this forum and read this series of posts then went up and right clicked on the google toolbar in Firefox and unchecked the thingee that said Google Toolbar and it went away? Lucky I suppose.

hannon4you

[steviex]

It is also because the Toolbar is in your profile which is not affected by a uninstall/reinstall...

Follow these instructions from the Toolbar Provider to remove it. http://www.google.com/support/firefox/b ... swer=45081
If those fail, then you will have to do a manual uninstall, or make yourself a new profile.

Google also have a Forum. Try posting your issue there. http://groups.google.com/group/FFToolbar-Group

[Vaughn]

I'm not dumb, I work with computers all day long, and I was really shocked at how much crap I had to go through to get this removed.

Attempt 1:
I went into Firefox, opened Add-Ons, found Google toolbar, clicked uninstall, it said it would be removed upon restarting Firefox. So I restarted, and got "Thank you for installing Google toolbar!"

NOTE TO MOZILLA/FIREFOX/GOOGLE ... that should have been the end of it right there! Get your heads together and prevent this kind of crap from happening in the future!

Attempt 2:
So I did the above uninstall step again, but this time just shut firefox down.

I checked Add/Remove Programs (Programs and Features on Windows Vista), Google Toolbar was not listed.

I went to my profile directory (on Vista, this was in c:/Users/[username]/AppData/Roaming/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/) and found my Extensions directory. Looking through the folders, I found two extension folders which had mention of Google toolbar in them, and removed them both.

I then restarted Firefox... and google toolbar was still there.

Attempt 3:
I finally got it removed by repeating all the above removal steps, and then additionally went into c:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/extensions/ and found another folder there that contained the Google Toolbar install file. I believe this is where it was coming from.

I believe it was installed this way by either Sun's Java Updater or the Open Office Updater. I was just clicking through agreeing to get things updated and accidently approved the toolbar installation. I'm rather pissed off by whichever one of them did this, at Google, and also at Firefox. This was way too reminiscent of IE and spyware. Get your act together guys.

[teoli2003]

Get your act together guys.

We are not Mozilla (neither Google, Java, ...)

So you should say that to them.

[steviex]

It is Google's Product. It is NOTHING to do with Mozilla. Google offers it for Download with Firefox. It is not installed in Firefox by Default (although some sites package it with Firefox. They should tell you about this)

Google owns the code for the Toolbar, Google has the responsibility of making sure it works correctly. They should also have responsibility for making sure that you can uninstall it properly. If it uses code, that hooks up to things it shouldn't then I don't see how Mozilla can take the blame...

Send your complaints to Google. Also contact Sun or Open Office, as these are the Vendors that may have shipped the Toolbar to you..

Also, we are neither Google nor Mozilla, but an Independent User to User Support Forum. http://www.mozillazine.org/about/

[cs.colvin]

Unable to remove the Google features from Firefox AND unable to clear the history. Whoever thought integrating Google features into Firefox has just turned off 3 people in this house entirely from using both products. It is every bit as annoying as IE ever was. We'll be using something else, possibly going back to Yahoo and IE since it no longer seems to beneficial to use Firefox with Google. Or maybe we'll sell our PCs and get Macs because THIS BITES. WHAT were they thinking??

[1a0ij0]

Firefox 3.0 certainly does include Google features in the download and install without opportunity to leave it out. I never knowingly install toolbars or the like because I have no need for them and they usually slow down my PC. Everyone in our house works with computers, we're not beginners and whichever group is responsible has ruined using Firefox for us. We're hoping it will be temporary, but if not I suppose Safari will do. Maybe we'll just use Ubuntu and a browser with less opportunity for control freaks to annoy.

[malliz]

If you download from here
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/
Then you will not get google toolbar. Simple if you download from a 3rd person site the your asking for trouble

[tarotfluff]

This is true - I installed ff3 from this site and do NOT have the google toolbar. I have OTHER problems altogether.....

Google used to be NICE. Now it is nasty and invasive

[steviex]

@ 1a0ij0 and @ cs.colvin


Do you mean the Built in Search Bar at the top right hand corner of the Window ?...

It is very easy to use another Search Engine there... Just click on the Search Icon and select Manage Search Engines...
You can remove Google from the list, and choose a new search Engine. There are loads to choose from HERE.. http://mycroft.mozdev.org/

Or even via the Customise Function (View > Customise...), you can drag the Search Bar off your Display completely...

[Guest]

I specifically stated "Google features", not the toolbar. One of the features we can't stand is the history at the url line in the drop down. The one with the star to the right of the field. Shift + delete seems to remove some but not all entries and we have yet to find where we can change annoying or invasive defaults. Now we're wondering if that's been there all along without being readily visible.

We have better things to do than research how to address undesirable features and defaults in Firefox. This is exactly the type of nonsense that caused many people to leave IE behind.

[a;skdjfajf;ak]

I specifically stated "Google features", not the toolbar. One of the features we can't stand is the history at the url line in the drop down. The one with the star to the right of the field. Shift + delete seems to remove some but not all entries and we have yet to find where we can change annoying or invasive defaults. Now we're wondering if that's been there all along without being readily visible.

We have better things to do than research how to address undesirable features and defaults in Firefox. This is exactly the type of nonsense that caused many people to leave IE behind.

Read here about changing the Address/bar: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=685365
Before you do that, you might want to read here and learn what the new Smart Location Bar is all about:
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=665391

[steviex]

Read the sticky here... for some help... viewtopic.php?f=38&t=685365

[kindofabuzz]

One of the features we can't stand is the history at the url line in the drop down.

Who is "we"? I personally love it. And every browser I've used for as long as I can remember have always had that feature. Nothing new.

[Guest]

We downloaded Firefox 3 from mozilla, as we always do.

We're referring to the Navigation Toolbar and we don't trust that search history is not being collected and remains unseen even if the Navigation Toolbar is unchecked. Why can only a certain amount of entries can be removed?

It's ironic that dealing with IE has become comparatively more simple and certainly no more insidious.