How to remove Ask Toolbar from Chrome browser

Have you accidentally installed the Ask toolbar on your computer? The Ask Toolbar is a search engine and toolbar that is installed when you install some free software such as Java or Adobe. It replaces your default search engine and sets up the search.ask.com home page. To remove this toolbar from Chrome, you can try it from the Chrome settings, but you may have to resort to other methods. Read on to learn how to remove Ask Toolbar from Chrome.

Steps

Part 1 of 4: Remove Ask Toolbar from Google Chrome

Step 1. Click the Chrome menu button in the top bar of the program, select "Additional tools" and click the line "Extensions."

Step 2. Select the “Extensions” tab

Step 3. Remove the Ask toolbar by clicking on the trash can icon to the right of the name

Step 4. Press the Chrome menu button again

Step 5. Click "Settings."

Step 6. Select "Manage Search Engines." (Located in the Search section.)

Step 7. Set the default Chrome search engine to google.com by clicking the “Set Omnibox Search Engine” button and selecting “Google

”

Step 8. Find Ask.com in the list of search engines and delete it by clicking “X

”

Part 2 of 4: Remove the Ask toolbar if the above method did not work

Step 1. Check if you are getting the following message on the Extensions page

"This extension is in use and cannot be removed or disabled."

Step 2. Close Chrome

Step 3. Right-click on the taskbar

Step 4. Select "Start Task Manager."

Step 5. Click on the “Processes” tab

Check and if the chrome.exe * 32 process is still running select it.

Step 6. Click "End Process."

Step 7. Open Control Panel

Step 8. Select “Programs and Features” or “Add or Remove Programs” or just “Programs” (depending on your OS)

If you are a Windows 8 user - click on the lower left corner of the screen and select "Control Panel." Then select "Uninstall a program."

Step 9. Remove Toolbar Ask and Ask Toolbar Updater

Step 10. Restart your computer

Step 11. Go to "Disk Cleanup." The utility can be found in the search bar by clicking the Windows Start button.

Step 12. Select your hard drive (most likely drive C)

Step 13. Click “OK” to clean up the disk

Wait for the process to complete.

Step 14. Click the Chrome menu

Step 15. Select "Settings."

Step 16. Click the link "Show advanced settings."

Step 17. Click on “Content Settings.” The button is located in the "Personal data" section.

Step 18. Delete all cookies by clicking the “All cookies and site data” button

Step 19. If that didn't work, click the Chrome menu button and click the "Settings" line

In the "Starter Group" section, click "Next Pages". Delete ask.com and point to the page you want.

Part 3 of 4: Scanning with Anti-Spyware

Step 1: Download the free Malwarebytes program from malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/ to make sure your computer is not infected with malware

Step 2. Double click on the downloaded file to install the program

Step 3. Follow the installation instructions on the screen

Step 4. Click "Finish."

Step 5. Select “Hyper Scan” to quickly scan your system for active threats

Step 6. Click “Scan.”

Step 7. Wait until the scan is complete

Step 8. Review the scan result and if malware is found, select all and click “Apply Actions.”

Part 4 of 4: Removing the Ask Toolbar using the Ask.com utility

Step 1. Download the utility from Ask.com

apnmedia.ask.com/media/toolbar/utilities/ToolbarRemover.exe

Step 2. Close the Chrome browser

Step 3. Run the downloaded utility

Step 4. Restart Chrome

Step 5. Check if the Ask extension has been removed

Advice

• The Ask toolbar comes bundled with the Java installation. Be very careful when installing or updating Java to avoid installing this toolbar.
• Always uncheck the option to install the Ask Toolbar.