babylon search bar and annoying pop up ads

sassi

my father is asking me for help with removing this, he installed a genuine programme, and did not untick a box to also install this cr*p.

We have tried having him scan with spybot, malware bytes, windows mrt.
all of which apparantly found and quarantined / removed spyware / adware...

the problem persists, and will not uninstall / disable.
am guessing its changed something in the registry, which i am not confident talking him through... as have only done a few startup changes myself on my pc in past....a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing :rotfl:!

i cannot get him to do anything too complicated over the telephone, so what would you suggest next?

if he tries reverting to google it still pops ads up and you can hear 'congratulations' from the speakers while browsing normal pages on amazon or wherever...

thanks in advance:D

ballyblack

Depends on browser


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4131661

sassi

firefox win 7 64bit

ballyblack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFv4gPHiwW4

http://www.intowindows.com/remove-babylon-search-from-firefox-chrome-and-internet-explorer/



.

waddler_8

IF you've already scanned with a number of things & it persists then there's no easy fix.

There'll be loads of websites that claim to have tools to remove it, but unfortunately you'll just end up with more useless junk installed as in the YouTube link above - "AVS registry cleaner scan fix and remove"

It sounds as though there is more going on than just the Babylon Toolbar.

You could run scanner after scanner with the hope that one will remove something, but at then end of the day you could spend hours doing this and get nowhere.

If the scans you've run so far isn't picking them up, then you need more specialised tools, and more specialised help.

There's likely new, yet undetected malware affecting the system, and/or a rootkit - which unfortunately there isn't a one click, fix all solution for. It's a specialised area - not one that you can advise on "over the phone"

Have him back up his important data & reinstall/restore windows, then update everything on the PC.

Failing that this is one time where he might have to take it to a shop (one that knows what they are doing) if he can't get someone who knows what they are doing to physically assist him.

sassi

ok. i'll suggest a format + reinstall.

soolin

Babylon is nasty, I got it on the back of Firefox and everytime I thought I had lost it, it came back again.

I've currently got my own thread running and am getting some really helpful advice about sorting it. Good luck.

s_b

would not removing firefox browser and reinstalling not get rid of babylon then?
i would have thought it would to be honest

soolin

s_b wrote: »

would not removing firefox browser and reinstalling not get rid of babylon then?
i would have thought it would to be honest

Nope it made no difference, it just kept coming back. I couldn't even see babylon if i searched for it, it did show in internet tools but the option to uninstall was greyed out.

I am just thankful for the experts on here who gave up so much time to help me yesterday when I had finally had enough.

espresso

soolin wrote: »

Babylon is nasty, I got it on the back of Firefox and everytime I thought I had lost it, it came back again.

I've currently got my own thread running and am getting some really helpful advice about sorting it. Good luck.

Please post the link from where you downloaded Firefox from?

I do not believe that you got Babylon "on the back of Firefox".

waddler_8

s_b wrote: »

would not removing firefox browser and reinstalling not get rid of babylon then?
i would have thought it would to be honest

if he tries reverting to google it still pops ads up and you can hear 'congratulations' from the speakers while browsing normal pages on amazon or wherever...

As I said, I think there is more going on than just the Babylon Toolbar.

Babylon is a legit company that produces translation software.

The Babylon Toolbar itself isn't particularly malicious - it's much the same as a lot of other toolbars & search engines, but it gets a bad rep (as do others) because of the way it's installed - generous affiliate program, (open to abuse - It could be installed by malware to ultimately profit the malware writers). It's also bundled with other otherwise legit software (freeware) as a way of monetising the download for the developer.

It is hard to fully uninstall without having to make further changes - which users often don't know how to do, & the quality of its search results could be called into question by some. Which again leads to it having a bad rep.

There will be websites that tell you how "dangerous" it is, whilst advising you to install there own brand of junkware to get rid of it.