Help Desperately Needed

[emmie]

for reasons cannot explain when i open out the firefox icon it goes direct to Ask.com which i didn't load, didn't want, and now can't find any of the info i had marked on toolbars, like talktalk for e mail, pages marked that i can go to direct. If someone can at least explain how i can get rid of this Ask.com. i have looked in any number of places, but am going round in circles. The only way i got back to AB was to log in again, as i have this and other sites bookmarked. I am fluffing fed up

[sandyRoe]

Is this any use, Em?

http://sp.ask.com/apn/toolbar/docs/default/faq/en/ff/index.html

[ummmm]

Uninstall it from the control panel.

Or go to firefox home page. Bottom of the screen and click on settings. Click the 'general' tab and then type in the homepage you want.

[Mosaic]

FYI the 'ask' toolbar is often sneakily added to downloads, so if you don't read all the small print and untick the box you get it whether you want it or not.

[emmie]

i have gone into control panel, and the ask.com is not there, pretty sure i deleted it, yet when open out the Firefox icon that is what it comes up with. I have lost all bookmarks, on the top left hand corner of the screen is the Firefox little box, click on it and it comes up with various options none of which seem to get me back to Firefox page, and all my bookmarks. A mate asked me to download some stuff to get the pictures from phone to computer, did but it's now botoxed the rest of the stuff. I have deleted all of his suggested downloads for the moment, i can reinstal
later but how do i get shot of Ask.com. because that is the only thing on the page.

[AB Editor]

Firefox >> Options >> Options >> General

What is you Home Page?

We suggest changing it to http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk :)

Firefox >> Add-ons >> Extensions

Can you see ask there?

[ichkeria]

Sounds like your toolbars are messed up. As Mosaic suggests, most likely a download has sneakily installed the Ask toolbar and everything else has got moved. If you right click near the top of the Firefox window you can recustomise the toolbars then things you were expecting should reappear.
and in Options ! General under Home Page delete the ask.com URL which probably appears there.
These things are a real nuisance.

[HockleyHeat]

If you go to the top right hand side of your screen, you get the 'Google' bar. Click on the down arrow next to the G and see which search engine(s) you have installed. I suspect that something you downloaded triggered Ask as your Search engine. Delete that, and it should come back to 'normal'.

[emmie]

you are right this is messed up all because i followed someones advice and downloaded some data to try and get the photo from mobile and computer.
i have managed to get default back to firefox home page, but when i look for all the data i have book marked it is in the library, and so i am faffing about - usually i click on bookmark e mail link or whatever one i need like AB and it goes straight to it. Now it doesn't, but comes up with library.

[AB Editor]

Is it usually a "bar" with links on Em10?

[emmie]

have lost the top screen toolbars, where you click on. all can see now is an opened out page, like now AB. and little box on the left with firefox - it gives various options, this is more than difficult to do or explain.

[grasscarp]

Press f11 to get toolbar back

[emmie]

shift key or not, press F11 and nada.

[grasscarp]

No shift key.

[AB Editor]

To the right of the url/address bar right click on a "empty" space.

Tick menu bar

Tick bookmarks bar

Alternatively, press "alt".

[emmie]

i crashed and burned, hence not getting back before, so apologies, i have by some minor miracle, though i don't usually go that route, have got back the top tool bar, so thanks for all the help, this was, is a ruddy nightmare, all for trying to load pictures from phone to computer. For the sake of sanity i have deleted all data to do with that for the time being. However for no reason still have the Ask.com on IE8, which i rarely use, as i preferred Firefox. I am now wary of loading any new data in case it screws up again.
my dearest wish would be to lob this machine in the Thames...

[bibblebub]

I hope that nothing that I posted yesterday caused you problems.

For future use with Firefox you might want to try Mozbackup http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ which lets you backup and restore the Firefox user profile without needing to know the system directories that it uses; I've been using it for years and it's compatible with Windows XP, 7 and 8 . So you can backup a working version before trying a new add-on or whatever and can readily get back to that working version should anything go wrong, without having to do something drastic like system restore.

[emmie]

bibble, thanks, it wasn't you, i asked someone to help, who knows about these things, however it didn't work and messed up big time. I shall refrain from the photo thing for the moment, i would expect it to be easy, but the computer is not recognising the driver for the phone, but for now it's staying in it's case.

[bibblebub]

phew, good luck with sorting out the remaining problems

[emmie]

some semblance of normality, however not sure how to get the IE8 one sorted, as i don't use it much it can stay for the time being.