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How to remove Babylon from the search engine menu?

  • 48 cavab
  • 148 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Babylon.Ltd

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My OS is Windows 7 Pro 64 bit; using Firefox ver 15.0. I downloaded Babylon tool bar and related apps because they were associated with a tool manual that I wanted to review. I then discovered how invasive these apps are. Successfully removed Babylon downloader and Tool bar via Start | Control Panel | program menu. However I notice that "Search the web (Babylon)" is still listed in the drop down menu of search engine options. I have defaulted my search engine to Google, and I can delete the Babylon option, but it returns every time when I close my browser and then return to my FF Mozilla home page. How can I permanently remove Babylon as a search engine option?

My OS is Windows 7 Pro 64 bit; using Firefox ver 15.0. I downloaded Babylon tool bar and related apps because they were associated with a tool manual that I wanted to review. I then discovered how invasive these apps are. Successfully removed Babylon downloader and Tool bar via Start | Control Panel | program menu. However I notice that "Search the web (Babylon)" is still listed in the drop down menu of search engine options. I have defaulted my search engine to Google, and I can delete the Babylon option, but it returns every time when I close my browser and then return to my FF Mozilla home page. How can I permanently remove Babylon as a search engine option?

Modified by Web Shepherd

Chosen solution

Babylon Solved: I've spent large parts of the last 4 days with the Babylon problem, stifled because I had no Address Bar and no View menu. The solution to those problems removed the Babylon bar as well.

Go to Help - Click Troubleshooting Information in the sub menu - and when that pops up Click on the Reset Firefox button, just to the right. Presto!

Read this answer in context 👍 12

All Replies (20)

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Talk to your programmers. If they have created this program, that needs people to contact the creators, in order to be able to correctly remove it ... There is SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE PROGRAM. Add/Remove programs did NOT remove it. Parts of the program are NOT named, in a way that suggests it is part of your program, and are NOT removed from Add/Remove. It adds itself to computers, apparently WITHOUT LETTING THE USER KNOW, then, changes DEFAULT browser settings, so that SOMETHING ALWAYS comes back, even after trying Add/Remove. If You had that happening on Your Personal computer, what would You think was going on? Would you be Happy to have to go to a site you Have NOT been Before, to find out how to get rid of software that should NOT have gotten Loaded on your computer? Would you be Confident that the support you would get would NOT be some type of SCAM?? Are you SURE that most people out there would Know Enough about how things work, to even Think about going to your site?? They would just know that Something seems to have TAKEN OVER my computer browser, and I Can NOT get rid of it!! Is ANYONE that puts your program "out there", seeing any of these complaints? If you are a legitimate business, you should have people trying to FIX this program.

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Your program is insidious spyware . An honest company would provide an uninstall feature. May hot bacon grease fall on your head.

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Dear Firefox Users

All your complaints are welcomed with an open ear , we are not trying to hide any solution or any info to keep you from removing Babylon, The software must be downloaded to your computer, it cannot come by Magic, so you must but must download something from the web in order for Babylon to be added to that Something and be installed on your computers, Now you know those small Letters agreements before you download something that asks you if you agree to the terms of use, Then inside there you are also allowing Babylon to be installed on your computer. Now let's say you've done that and you regret, that is not the End of the world, we are here to show you how to remove it if you don't manage or succeed in doing so, we offer Support Service via Phone ( 18668086361), Chat Service ( http://support.babylon.com/visitor/in.../_promptType=chat)

We even Opened a Special Website that shows how to remove Babylon: (http://www.babylon.com/uninstall_sear.../index), and we are reading all your posts here to gather more easy solutions for you.

Like these easy steps:

  • Go to Control Panel, click Programs (software).
  • Uninstall "Browser Manager" + "Bprotector" + "Object Installer" + "Babylon Toolbar on IE"

Then follow the relevant steps:


Firefox ---------------------------

> Open a new Firefox window (website)

> Go to Tools> Options> and go to change your order, the Home. ( f.e www.google.de) and click OK.

> Remove the search engine of Babylon by clicking the small arrow next to the icon of Babylon

> Manage Search Engines

> Select Babylon and Remove

> Close Firefox and open again

> Write in the address Bar "about:config" and click Enter

> Write in the search engine "Babylon."

> Click on any 'Babylon' preferences with the right mouse button and select "Reset"

In the following video you can see how to change TAB URL :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yPX-ZJ5fQc&feature=related

If you delete the Browser Manager and you still get Babylon search:

• Navigate to the key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlset\services, locate the Browser Manager subkey here and hit the delete key • Go to HKLM\Software\ and delete Browser Manager from here • Remove the dll from HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\Appinit_Dlls

So bottom line is that we don't run out of obligation to you all, even though you are not our Clients , and you did not pay for anything, and you had not even asked for that , we treat you like clients in order to restore everything to your satisfaction.

Good Day to you All :-) Cheers

Babylon Support

Modified by NoahSUMO

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Babylon is an interesting entity. It operates completely outside the norms and conventions of a rational, responsible software company. When you do a Google search for: "how to remove babylon", you find over 16 million hits. And that is just today. Babylon posts here are naive, disingenuous and self serving. They have created such an aura of distrust, fear and rage that few, if any, will contact them for advice, let alone future downloads. Can they be blocked from this forum?

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Jaguar6cy


Try to google how to remove incredimail (2,530,000) or how to remove AVG (41,100,000), and if you check even deeper you will find they are even harder to remove than Babylon, but the bottom line is that you don't see them riding the Web in order to explain and offer help on removal.

We are not trying to develop any arguement here even to advertise anything, this is a free place to debate, but the main point for you is to understand that Babylon just wants the benefit of who ever has an intrest in Installing and Removing Babylon !


Cheers Babylon Support

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Babylon opens their post with a very insulting greeting: "Dear Users". I am not a dear user, never have been and never wanted to be. Their software was hidden and cloaked inside another program. These are all problems they intentionally created and intentionally built in to make it hidden and completely not removable without significant outside assistance, or insider knowledge. Legal action is indicated and should be pursued.

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Jaguar6cy Just to make it clear It referred to Mozilla Users

so Dear (Mozilla) Users

thanx

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Babylon, Why are you being so defensive? That doesn't look like an easy uninstall program to uninstall your espionage program. Why dont you dishonest heathens make one? I uninstalled your creepy program with shareware from spybot . It was easy to use and Babylon was gone.

Modified by MagorRight

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Jaguar, which program was Babylon toolbar hidden & cloaked in? I'd like its name so I can warn others to stay away from it.


jaguar6cy & MagorRight, I agree with your feelings and statements about companies like these that install useless, malware toolbars that are damaging and annoying. I hate any toolbar of this nature with immense passion.

But our anger is focused on the wrong person. He is a support person given the unfortunate job of telling people how to remove this program. Although he works for the company, he isn't directly responsible for their mess. We instead should be blaming the developers who created Babylon Toolbar in this fashion and their Product Manager or other bosses who told them to create Babylon toolbar so that it was impossible or as difficult as possible to remove.

Spread the word on blogs,Twitter and news sites. I just wish Mozilla would make a public announcement shaming their company for their actions. The same with the Incredibar toolbar company (which is one of the worst infections I have ever seen). The Babylon support guy is right about that. I'm not sure how bad AVG's toolbar is. I'll have to double check.

So let's give him a chance to provide support and I'll try to find a more public place where everyone who's angry about this can vent their anger & opinions. I'm also checking to see if his instructions work.

Hopefully some tech news sites will pick up the story and shame these companies. Just like when CNET's Download.com started bundling software with adware, toolbars and designing the installer dialogs so users would be forced to install the extra software. For this reason I have boycotted Download.com and use instead Filehippo.com.

Here's 2 good blog posts on it:
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/12/download-com-bundling-toolbars-trojans/
http://blog.chron.com/techblog/2011/08/download-com-offers-crapware-with-that-program-you-wanted/

Some news sites where I would be emailing writers are:
www.wired.com, www.h-online.com, news.slashdot.org, krebsonsecurity.com, http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/author/gcluley/ (click the "email Graham" link on his page) and theregister.co.uk

Legal action should be considered against these companies and I wish some government entity would step in on the consumer's behalf for the amount abuse & harassment caused. Unfortunately the company is headquartered in Israel and most likely where the CEO lives. So I suppose that legal recourse can not be had because the company is overseas. Although the FBI was able to seize the Megaupload domain (with the cooperation of local law enforcement agencies in Hong Kong and New Zealand), they should of pursued companies like this. Hopefully this will happen when government computers are infected with these pests.

Sorry for the long post. This topic has bothered me for years and I think it's all time we fight back against companies like this until they fix their product or are shut down. These deceptive practices have to stop. But it has to be done in public, high visibility places. The more bad press, the more these companies can feel the pain in their wallet.

Modified by NoahSUMO

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@Jaguar, I think the difference between AVG and Babylon is I was given an option if I wanted the AVG toolbar and I said no, but with this piece of junk it just showed up and I don't have any idea what it came in on. Have finally gotten rid of it, but it was not easy. What DID it ride in on??

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Don Tennant, writer for IT Businessedge dot com explains how he got tricked into downloading the Babylon Toolbar that was bundled with a version of Firefox from from a rogue web site in Nicosia, Cyprus. His blog is worth reading. Spread the news to friends and co-workers.

[http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/f.../lesson-learned-the-hard-way-pay-attention-to-the-source-of-your-downloads.html]

Mr. Tennant goes on to give credit to a spokesperson from Mozilla that provided him with valuable information and clarified Mozilla’s position of NOT bundling the Babylon Toolbar as part of Firefox downloads.

He quotes: Mozilla spokesperson: “To be clear, Mozilla does not bundle the Babylon Toolbar as part of Firefox downloads from Mozilla.org. The Babylon Toolbar gets bundled with the Babylon translation software and with other applications through third-party download sites. Babylon can be disabled from the Firefox Add-ons Manager—you must disable all three of the Babylon-related extensions. You can also attempt to reset Firefox. Directions for that can be found in this article:

[http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix-most-proble...]

Finally, always make sure you download Firefox from www.mozilla.org and encourage your readers to do the same.”

Modified by Web Shepherd

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I am using amplicate.com to complain about babylon. Babylon is a parasite toolbar that comes in when you accidentally invite it. Complaining to the support tech eventually travels uphill hill to the CEO and avoids any spyware that mite come from contacting Babylon directly.

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There is never a way to identify the carrier of a virus like this. But I had just tried to install a "video card stability test" from CNet. Clearly I am not going to CNet again. I am fairly confident that was the carrier. Maybe someone can test that. Virus Scan did not see it as a virus, yet.

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Someone claiming to be from Mozilla contacted me asking for more information on the ability of Babylon to re install itself after uninstall, and about:config resets. My reply is bouncing back undelivered. So here is the response:Hi, thankls for your interest. I had confronted Babylon two years ago and it was simple to disable that time. But this time the process has been made more difficult. That is why posted "solutions" did not work. Uninstalling did not work. Removing AddOns did not work. Adjustment to setting did not work. One time I got Babylon down to just three entries in about:config. But the last file would not reset. I closed Firefox but found all 30 files back and reinstalled on the next restart. I did try to download a video card test because I was having a card issue. But the download took far longer then a simple test program, and I noticed some files that had nothing to do with testing. So I cancelled about 30% through. Apparently not soon enough. One of the many solutions involved clearing cache so I don't have the site. I will try to find it again.............. This appears to be the one, as I used to trust CNET. http://download.cnet.com/Video-Card-Stability-Test/3000-18512_4-10418474.html I could be wrong, but the wording looks very familiar. I could download it again if it will help. Also, one of the replies contained a post from "Babylon" itself, giving the following, and the opening paragraph is the key. The Browser Manager program is the problem. However, the three programs cited did not appear in Programs at all. I have not done a search for them yet, but will. I now find I still have six files for babylon, all ending in :inx, and all last modified in 2004, long before I bought this laptop Finally, the Babylon icon still takes over the address bar icon on many sites. Any hints on that problem? I don't trust this company's intentions or plans in the future. Let me know what you discover.

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I have been trying to get rid of Babylon and wrote to the company who then gave me directions for removing it. I have followed the directions to the letter however, it keeps coming back. I sent the following e-mail

"I have gone through step by step the directions for removing Babylon as shown in your instructions. However, IT KEEPS COMING BACK!!!!!!!! like a bad nightmare. This is what keeps reappearing int the about:config no matter how many times that I reset it:

Preference Name	Status	Type 	Value
extentions.BabylonToolbar_i.babExt	user set	string	
extentions.BabylonToolbar.vrsn	user set	string	1.6.9.12
extentions.BabylonToolbar.vrsni	user set	string	1.6.9.12
extentions.BabylonToolbar_i.vrsnTs	user set	string	1.6.9.1218:43:55
extentions.BabylonToolbar.isntlDay	user set	string	15598
extentions.BabylonToolbar.id	user set	string	180aa9ea000000000000e0cb4e9518d3
extentions.BabylonToolbar.prdct	user set	string	BabylonToolbar
extentions.BabylonToolbar_i.babTrack	user set	string	affID=112555&tt=120912_pcp_3712_7
extentions.BabylonToolbar.aflt	user set	string	babsst
extentions.BabylonToolbar.prtnrId	user set	string	babylon 
extentions.BabylonToolbar.tlbrId	user set	string	base
extentions.BabylonToolbar.dftltLng	user set	string	en
extentions.BabylonToolbar.admin	user set	boolean	false
extentions.BabylonToolbar.autoRvrt	user set	string	false
extentions.BabylonToolbar.excTlbr	user set	boolean	false
extentions.BabylonToolbar_i.newTab	user set	boolean	false
extentions.BabylonToolbar.tlbrSrchUrl	user set	string	http://search.babylon.com/?babsrc=TB_def&mntrId=180aa9ea000000000000e0cb4e9518d3&q=
extentions.BabylonToolbar_i.smplGrp	user set	string	none
extentions.BabylonToolbar_i.scrExt	user set	string	ss
extentions.BabylonToolbar.instlRef	user set	string	sst
extentions.BabylonToolbar.appId	user set	string	{BDB69379-802F-4eaf-B541-F8DE+2DD98DB}

WHAT DO I DO TO GET RID OF IT ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!!!"

Their reply?

"Thank you for taking the time to write us.

Unfortunately it is not possible to remove them.

Options :

1) Reinstall Firefox

2) Reset them to be unbold and keep using your default browser.

If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to write to me again.

Best regards,

Ben David | Babylon Support Team | Babylon Ltd."

Modified by cor-el

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Hi fedupwithbabylon, are you sure it isn't spelled extensions with an "s"?

Usually if preferences return, there are 4 possible explanations:

  • You still have a Babylon-related toolbar installed. Check here to root it out (disable everything, restart, only re-enable essential extensions):

orange Firefox button or Tools menu > Add-ons > Extensions

  • There are settings in a user.js file that get re-imported at Firefox startup. See the earlier part of this thread for further discussion.
  • There is a problem with your prefs.js file that prevents your deletions from being saved. After closing Firefox, try renaming your prefs.js file to prefs.old. See the earlier part of this thread for more information on how to access your currently active settings (Firefox profile) folder.
  • Other software on your PC is injecting settings into prefs.js directly, but I suspect that is less common since Firefox overwrites the file at shutdown.

Edit: I thought this was a different thread. To access the currently active settings (Firefox profile) folder, use:

Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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Hey fedupwithbabylon, We are sorry to hear that this is the solution you got from our Support Rep, we are checking this case to prevent this from happening again, the solution is regarded to what is known as "Browser Manager" which is a feature that keeps track of Babylon or any other toolbars you might have downloaded in the past, the way to move it is by the follow steps:


• Navigate to the key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlset\services, locate the Browser Manager subkey here and hit the delete key • Go to HKLM\Software\ and delete Browser Manager from here • Remove the dll from HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\Appinit_Dlls


let us know if it helped

Sorry again

Babylon Support

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AGAIN!! ANY program that needs TECHNICAL SUPPORT to uninstall it, NEEDS WORK!! If that particular program, also, installs itself without SPECIFIC knowledge of the computer user, AND changes DEFAULT settings of another program, AND has code in different pieces to BRING ITSELF BACK; SOMEONE in Programming needs to find another job! (CIA, FBI, China???). This is NOT how PUBLIC, LEGITIMATE software should "behave". Ask your managers, if they expect the USUAL computer user to be able to EDIT the REGISTRY, to remove a program they don't want. And just because some other programs might have uninstall problems, does NOT give a LIcence for You to have them.

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Still have the problem and I don't seem to be the only one. With the time spent on this problem, time being valuable, someone should commence a class action.

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By the way, I am not a programmer and am still trying to figure out how to find the keys let alone delete modify whatever!

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