Remove Ask Toolbar from your browser
The Ask toolbar is a free browser add-on for Internet Explorer, Coogle Chrome and Mozilla Firefox that helps you search the internet using the Ask search engine “search.ask.com". The “Ask.com” installation software hijacks your search settings and modifies your internet home page to “search.ask.com”.
The “Ask.com” installer program is bundled inside other free software installation programs and for that reason you must always pay attention when you install free software on your computer.
To remove "Ask” search settings & “Ask” toolbar from your computer, use the steps below:
* Click here to see a detailed video on how to remove "Ask” search settings & “Ask” toolbar.
How to remove "Ask” search settings & “Ask” toolbar from your computer:
Step 1. Uninstall applications installed from "Ask.com” from your Control panel.
1. To do this, go to Start > Control Panel.
{Start > Settings > Control Panel. (Windows XP)}
2. Double click to open “Add or Remove Programs” if you have Windows XP or
“Programs and Features” if you have Windows 8, 7 or Vista.
3. In the program list, find and Remove/Uninstall these applications: *
a. Ask Toolbar (By Ask.com)
b. Ask Toolbar Updater (By Ask.com)
Step 2. Remove "Ask” search settings & “Ask” toolbar from your internet browser.
Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox
Internet Explorer
How to remove "Ask” search settings & “Ask” toolbar from Internet Explorer and restore IE search settings.
1. Open Internet Explorer and then open “Internet Options”.
To do this from IE’s file menu, choose “Tools” > “Internet Options”.
Notice*: In the latest versions of IE press the “Gear” icon 
on the top right.
2. On “General” tab delete the “search.ask.com” from inside Home Page box, type your preferred home page (e.g. www.google.com) and press “OK”.
3. Go again to IE’s main menu and choose “Tools” > “Manage Add-ons”.
4. Choose “Toolbars and Extensions” on the left pane and then disable all “Ask Toolbar” extensions if they exist.
5. Click on “Search Providers” options at the left pane.
5a. Choose and “Set as default” search provider another search provider than “Ask search”.
5b. Then choose the “Ask search” and click Remove.
6. Close all Internet Explorer windows and proceed to Step 3.
Google Chrome
How to remove "Ask” search settings & “Ask” toolbar from Google Chrome and restore Chrome search settings.
1. Open Google Chrome and go to chrome menu 
and choose "Settings".
2. Find the "On startup" section and choose "Set Pages".
3. Delete the "search.ask.com" from startup pages by pressing the "X" symbol on the right.
4. Set your preferred startup page (e.g. http://www.google.com) and press "OK".
5. Under “Appearance” section, check to enable the “Show Home button” option and choose “Change”.
6. Delete the “search.ask.com” entry from “Open this page” box.
7. Type (if you like) you preferred webpage to open when you press your “Home page” button (e.g. www.google.com) or leave this field blank and press “OK”.
5. Go to "Search" section and choose "Manage search engines".
6. Choose your preferred default search engine (e.g. Google search) and press "Make default".
7. Then choose the Ask.com search engine -“websearch.ask.com"- and remove it by pressing the "X" symbol at the right.
Choose "Done" to close "Search engines" window.
8. Choose "Extensions" on the left.
9. In “Extensions” options remove the ““Ask Toolbar” extension by clicking the recycle icon at the right.
10. Close all Google Chrome windows and proceed to Step 3.
How to remove "Ask” search settings & “Ask” toolbar from Mozilla Firefox and restore Firefox search settings..
1. Click on “Firefox” menu button on the top left of Firefox window and go to “Options”.
![remove-ask.com-firefox[3]](https://www.wintips.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/remove-ask.com-firefox3.jpg "remove-ask.com-firefox[3]")
2. On “General” tab delete the “search.ask.com”page from inside Home Page box, type your preferred home page (e.g. www.google.com) and press “OK”.
3. Open Firefox menu, go to “Tools” > “Manage Add-ons”.
4. Choose “Extensions” on the left and then make sure that “Ask Toolbar” extension doesn’t exist. *
* If “Ask Toolbar” extension exist, then select the “Ask Toolbar” reference and choose “Remove”.
5. Close all Firefox windows and proceed to the next Step.
Step 3: Clean remaining registry entries using “AdwCleaner”.
1. Download and save “AdwCleaner” utility to your desktop.
2. Close all open programs and Double Click to open ”AdwCleaner” from your desktop.
3. Press “Delete”.
4. Press “OK” at “AdwCleaner – Information” window and press “OK” again to restart your computer.
5. When your computer restarts, close "AdwCleaner" information (readme) window and continue to the next step.
Step 4. Clean your computer from remaining malicious threats.
Download and install one of the most reliable FREE anti malware programs today to clean your computer from remaining malicious threats. If you want to stay constantly protected from malware threats, existing and future ones, we recommend that you install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO:
Malwarebytes™ Protection
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*If you don’t know how to install and use “MalwareBytes Anti-Malware“, read these instructions.
Advice: To ensure your computer is clean and safe, perform a Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware full scan in windows “Safe mode“.*
*To get into Windows Safe mode, press the “F8” key as your computer is booting up, before the appearance of the Windows logo. When the “Windows Advanced Options Menu” appears on your screen, use your keyboard arrows keys to move to the Safe Mode option and then press “ENTER“.
Step 5. Clean unwanted files and entries.
Use “CCleaner” program and proceed to clean your system from temporary internet files and invalid registry entries.*
*If you don’t know how to install and use “CCleaner”, read these instructions.
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September 23, 2016 @ 3:27 am
Thank you, WinTips, for the video and the article on removing Ask. Yes, it's a bit of work, but at least here is an honest guideline that is not written by those @$$holes who invented Ask. As far as eliminating them from the internet, use eSet Security on your system. Unfortunately, eSet is now only good for 1 year. Never click on the freeware that brought in Ask.com again. In my case, it was Hulu.com for "free" movies, or movie fragments, rather – we found no complete films on the site. All we got was fu<king Ask.com from it. What a headache!
Learn to tune your spam blocker / anti malware programs to recognize and disallow Ask.
Learn to write viruses that intercept Ask and destroy their advertisers' programs.
Try to find the actual people who made this software hijack package and seek them out. Publish their names, photos, social security numbers, their work histories, their addresses, and their children's names and schools all over the internet, along with a brief account of the worldwide Ask problem. I can pretty well guarantee that their life expectancy will go way down ;), and it should help curtail their anti-social computing activities, one way or another.
December 7, 2013 @ 7:30 am
I have tried to use ask.com several times, usually landing on it unintentionally, and every time it fails to get me to a website at all related to my search, just causing me to chase in circles, wasting my time. So far I haven't been able find a forum discussing the pros and cons of ask.com, but based on my experience I can only determine that ask.com serves no practical use. Isn't there a way it can be eliminated from the Internet?
November 12, 2013 @ 9:30 pm
Look, all I want if for computer people to stop adding junk to my computer without first asking. I did not ask for ASK but it showed up anyway. A lot of us seniors get confused when different programs appear and our computers don't work like they usually do. These add on have caused me more headaches than I can count, please, do nothing until you get my personal consent, and now you have it to remove "Ask" from my computer.