Uninstall Avast search engine?
I installed Avast anti-virus awhile ago, stopped using it, then uninstalled it, but I'm finding little remnants of it here and there (I'm not sure that's bad but it's annoying), and I just discovered in my search bar there's a "Google (Avast)" search engine, so I go into search settings and remove it, but worried it still might be installed somewhere. I'm unable to find it anywhere, so can anyone advise on this?
Chosen solution
Firefox finds search plugins in a couple different locations. One is in your personal settings, and one is in Firefox's program folder. There might be yet a third location (shared settings folder) but I haven't seen it before.
To check your personal settings folder:
Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
- (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
- type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various folders and files.
Look for a folder named searchplugins and click into it to see whether you find anything unwanted.
Keep this window open for the next step...
To check Firefox's program folder:
Since you have a 64-bit version of Windows, navigate to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\
Click into browser and then into searchplugins to check for anything unwanted here.
Okay?
You can check for any avast! add-ons on the Add-ons page. Either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
Switch categories using the left column. The key one is Extensions, but you also could check Plugins.
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Chosen Solution
Firefox finds search plugins in a couple different locations. One is in your personal settings, and one is in Firefox's program folder. There might be yet a third location (shared settings folder) but I haven't seen it before.
To check your personal settings folder:
Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
- (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
- type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various folders and files.
Look for a folder named searchplugins and click into it to see whether you find anything unwanted.
Keep this window open for the next step...
To check Firefox's program folder:
Since you have a 64-bit version of Windows, navigate to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\
Click into browser and then into searchplugins to check for anything unwanted here.
Okay?
You can check for any avast! add-ons on the Add-ons page. Either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
Switch categories using the left column. The key one is Extensions, but you also could check Plugins.
Thanks, I didn't find anything Avast-related, so I just wonder if the "Google (Avast)" thing was installed by Firefox or Avast.
The standard installation of Firefox doesn't include anything related to avast!