Ask commonly takes over Firefox installs in a malicious way. Fortunately this is easy to get rid of. Please follow these steps: * [[Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page]] * [[Update Firefox to the latest version]]

How do I remove the offending toolbar?

Did you read this? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/remove-toolbar-has-taken-over-your-firefox-search

See: *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_add-ons *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_toolbars Note that extensions that do not have a "Remove" button are installed by other software and are not under control of the Firefox extension manager. Such globally installed extensions are usually found via a registry scan or are installed in a location that Firefox scans for installed extensions. *https://developer.mozilla.org/Installing_extensions *https://developer.mozilla.org/Adding_Extensions_using_the_Windows_Registry Extensions installed this way need to be removed via the settings (options/preferences) of the program that has added this extension or this program has to be uninstalled via "Control Panel > Programs". In Firefox you an only disable such an extension.