First I have to admit, I did something stupid. I decided to install My Web Tattoo on my Facebook page. I knew with all the spam about this addon it would try and sneak in some kind of malware. Being the “I know how to fix anything” PC Tech that I am, I pretty much dared it to install something. Which it promptly did. It changed my default search to some crap called “Fast Browser Search.” I tried Spybot and BHO Remover, both of which found my system clean. I looked in the addons under firefox and uninstalled My Web Tatoo. Then I found that some of my search’s were still getting redirected to Fast Browser Search. So I searched my registry for Fast Browser Search and various combinations of those words. Nothing…. I searched the internet for Fast Browser Search and their site has nothing about how to remove it, big surprise. I won’t go into how it should be illegal for companies to pull this !#$!. I did find a page from the My Web Tattoo people that said you can remove it from the addons in firefox. Well I already did that, and it was still redirecting. Then I remembered the config settings in Firefox. And there it was.
Since this was such a nightmare to find and remove, I felt it was my duty to pass on this to you, my faithful readers 
Type about:config in the address bar in Firefox. In the filter, type fast. This should bring up all the instances of where Fast Browser Search has taken over. Right click on each of the Fast Browser Search entry s and select reset. This should put most of them back to google. And that’s it!
UPDATE: One of our readers, ED, has added another step
There was a few more steps i needed to do to remove it from list…in the search engine toolbar I had forgotten to click that and manage search engines as well, after the Tools/Add-on removal. Also , in the about:config area, I also typed in … fbs … in the filter section and found more fast browser search stuff in that filter set. Just in case, I reset them as well.=)
Thanks for the info Ed
MORE HELP
I figured out some more information on removing this. I can tell buy some of the replies that not everyone has seen the other posts I made later. Here is another one that might help if the above info didn’t.
256 Comments
Thank God. This fast browser search wouldn;t leave me alone.
You are the man. This thing took over after I did the same thing. Thank you for your post!
I’m glad it helped. From looking at my stats, this post is getting a lot of hits from people looking for a fix on search engines.
Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting.
How do I remove it using IE7?
It didn’t get installed into my IE7, so I didn’t have to deal with it first hand. I was running Firefox when it installed. I have a couple of ideas about where it would hide in IE. I’ll do a search based on how I think it would be removed and I’ll post a follow up reply here on what find or don’t find.
I really like your post. Does it copyright protected?
Well everything I post would be considered “copyrighted” but I prefer the creative commons version. Your welcome to use any of it, just credit this blog as your source.
Thank You!!!
My 14yo sister is visiting my wife and I from out of state. She is enjoying our cable internet, because she’s used to her dial-up at my parents home in a rural area of Kentucky. Unfortunately, this has led to my run-in with “My Web Tatoo” and “Fast Browser Search.” She admits to “accidentally” getting it at Facebook.
Alas, I use IE8, not FireFox, so I can’t use the fix you have provided here. I am having much dificulty removing it entirely. I’ve gotten it out of IE, but I can’t get the last remnants of it off of my add/remove programs list on my control panel. I think that is the only trace of it left, but it doesn’t do a thing when I click on “change/remove” to try and uninstall it.
If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears, or eyes, whichever. TIA
Thank you!!! What a headache that thing is, this is my third attempt to uninstall that garbage.
hmm… strange.
You’re the best! Thank you so much for this easy explanation!
THANK YOU CHRIS !!! You have saved my sanity !!!!! What a bunch of garbage that search engine/tool bar was. Someone should report Facebook !!! You have done a good deed my friend posting this! I looked everywhere on the web for a fix.
MM
Thanks for your help. I tried to reset. I hope it works!!!
hey thanks alot!
Thanks I appreciate the helpful posts as well as screen shots. Talk about a pain in the butt.
help me please and be very detailed as I am new to this game anyways I have learned my lesson please help me with this crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
fyi they have rename the mytatoosfastbrowers to mtfb..
YESSSS!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for the posting.
I love you. You’re my new hero, congratulations.
Thanks once again… this is a gift that just keeps giving.
Thanks for your help, this was driving me crazy!! Oh, and I clicked on a bunch of the Google Ads
Thank You Kara
Thanks for the tips. I should have known better as well and assumed I’d be able to get rid of whatever crap gets added with the “free” application.
There was a few more steps i needed to do to remove it from list…in the search engine toolbar I had forgotten to click that and manage search engines as well, after the Tools/Add-on removal. Also , in the about:config area, I also typed in … fbs … in the filter section and found more fast browser search stuff in that filter set. Just in case, I reset them as well.=)
Life is back to “normal” now haha.
Thanks Ed for the added information.
Chris
Thanks, this shouldn’t be allowed, what a pain and rubbish search engine
Thanks very much for this my mother managed to install this on her machine and had no clue how to get it off
Thanks for the info
i say thank you
Great work! Thank you.
Thanks so much! I can’t believe I stupidly installed that tattoo thing too. You are a life saver!
Gave my wife firefox thinking she couldn’t mess it up. Then came web tatoo crap. Thanks, this fixed my issue!
They’ve figured this out. The settings keep getting restored somehow.
If it keeps getting restored, make sure you have removed it from add and remove programs in widows and you’ve removed it from Firefox’s add on section. Otherwise it will keep getting downloaded and reinstalled. So you want to make sure you don’t have any program listing for Make The Web Better and My Tattoo under add and remove programs. Once that is removed you can do the other things I mentioned in the blog post.
I cannot get rid of this fast browser. I did everything as suggested. I had already removed with revo uninstaller. But it kept coming back. I did the about config with a fast search and reset. Then after seeing the post about fbs, I did that too, but it brought up like 10 instances and I cannot reset or if I do it makes fbs default. It foes not reset to google or go away.
Fast Browser Search Uninstall:
c:program filesfbsearch toolbar
>fbsuninstall
After unistalling it the official way, I found that you can remove this in IE8 by going into Tools > Manage Addons…
Disable MTWB in “Toolbars and Extensions” and remove it from “Search Providers”.
What true crap this Tattoo thing was anyway…
Thanks Chris & Ed, it worked!!!
ahhh, thank you. I had the toolbar but not the add-on somehow, so i actually had to install the add-on in order to remove the toolbar.
THANK YOU! Omg that thing was annoying. I really appreciate it.
oh thank god i thought that thing would never go a way. it is the absolute worst thank you so so much
yess. i ve done it. how stupid ext. it is. i looked everywhere but couldnt manage to remove it. You are the hero man.
I ll share this in my language!
thanks.
Wow. I’ve never been translated before! Thank you very much John
I also found I had to go to system preferences, security, and then click on the exceptions button under Warn me when sites try to install add-ons and delete the Tattoo site.
Thanks Slavrich. I’ll add this to my next update
I’m an IE8 user and I think I got mine from my daughter and this tattoo your page from Facebook. Anyway, I’ve done everything listed for IE people including:
Tools > Manage Addons…
Disable MTWB in “Toolbars and Extensions”
and remove it from “Search Providers”.
But when I click the TABBED BROWSING tab…. guess where I am!… argh.
Hi Susan,
Unfortunatley, I was never able to test it out on IE8. While I was trying to install it in IE8, it kept crashing and it messed up IE8 a bit so I never was able to figure it out in that. Maybe someone here could help out or post a link to somewhere that has removed it from IE8.
Manage ad-ons, Search Providers, when I try to remove the fast web, and delete it…. once I reboot… it’s back.
check out some of my other posts on removing it. There’s some programs you need to remove also.
In addition to taking over the Keyword (reset), and other default searches (even after uninstall), it still leaves searchplugin files.
Look for the fast.xml and fast.png files in your Mozilla Firefoxsearchplugins directory. They are not part of the normal FF install, and are safe to delete.
You rock! I was struggling trying to get that damn thing off. This was simple. Thanks for posting the solution.
HooHaa! Thank you!
Thanks for that! My husband downloaded it on facebook and it’s been making me crazy. I tried to remove it on my own using all the usual things and it always popped right back up. Now it’s gone. Thank you, thank you!
Thankyou so much. My wife installed this on Facebook and didn’t know. I was so frustrated with this thing, I tried everything. Thanks again
hello sir i tried all like uninstalled, went to about:config did wat was told but no use at all plz someone help me
pls help me uninstall fast browser search
i have toolbar icons near my address bar!
thanks
karen diamond
You are my hero !!
Thanks !
Praise The Lord Jesus!! I couldn’t shake that Fast Browser Search loose, for nothing. I tried and I tried, sooo I THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS VERY HELPFUL INFORMATION!!!!!
-GOD BLESS YOU AND YOURS
Thanks ever so much! FBS needs to be shoved up somebody’s rectum…….maybe who ever thought this thing up!?
I’ve tryed everything, including a session with a medium trying to find out if there was no spirit posesed my pc…. nothing worked out. Every time I open FF in the fast browser that comes in defaul appears this ugly icon, and when I open a new tabb it apears Welcome to tabbed browsing….
I want my FF as it was T-T please help!
to put faster “about:config ” go to tools in options, main, page, “about:config” and reload the page
in spanish:
para tipear rapido “about:config” ir a herramientas, opciones, principal, donde dice “pagina de inicio” escribir “about:config” aparece una ventana de advertencia y clckear en “seré cuidadoso”. luego seguir con los pasos recomendados anteriormente
Thanks
Mauricio
Thank you so much =) simple tutorial. For noobs you can only reset the bolded ones.
THANKSS SOOOOO MUCH!!!!!! YOURE THEEE BEEEST
Thanks!
hey I tried changing the config and removing it from manage search engines butstill i cant get rid of it !! and this is not showing in my addons list
please help me out i’m getting annoyed .
If following the above steps is not solving the problem
do set the values to default in about:config and then go to C:/programfiles/FBStoolbar and uninstall it from there and delete the fbstoolbar folder this will remove the entire trace of FBS from your system
pradeep, you are correct. I did some more articles on removing this where I talk about what you just said. Since you missed it chances are some others didn’t read it either and maybe they will see this here. Thanks
Thank you so much, i’ve recommended this thread on other forums. Glad you figured out a way to remove this malicious piece of malware.
Shame on FireFox AND Facebook…and of course the codemasters who developed this crap…
Thanks this helps resetting most but I still have one issue. Whenever I open new tab, Fast Browser still controlling the newly opened page. I can’t find any settings in the config. Are you able to help?
Thanks for the info! What a treasure. I hate it when a program imposes itself in a place it is not desired! Great work guys!
thanks! it works!
Thanks man!
thank you very much…
thank you thank you thank you
the fast browser was driving me absolutely mental
you are a god
i love you
thank you thank you thank you
Thank you Chris. I too am one of the folks who found you blog on Google trying to remove this damned thing.
Interestingly, it did not show up in my Add or Remove Programs, which I read is one way to do it.
But, I was able to engage in mighty battle using your info. It still popped up on me until I removed it through “Add-ons”>”Extensions” in Firefox.
The little bastard is still lurking in my quick search toolbar though. Hell, I dont even remember installing a quick search toolbar.
What I would give for 15 mins with the guy who wrote this code. Just him, me, a soldering iron, a ball peen hammer, 2 rats, 7 cubes of ice, a cargo net, and a tuba. That would be most sweet.
Yours was the method that really got things on track for me.
Thank you very much. Now, I think I shall read your blog as long as I am here.
M
hi… i can’t remove this shit from my computer. what can i do…i’m removing but it comes again…
The only thing that worked for me was to delete the fastbrowsersearch cookie.
Well.. I did everything that Chris says in the article and it didn’t work. And its not just that the bar s there. Its making browsing hell.. Can’t search.. If I click on a link then it goes to fastbrowser search results.. Fucked up.. I have tried editing registry .. uniinstalling.. its not listed in my add ons.. i reset the strings in the config and they keep changing back… How come no malware software catches this shit… ‘m on the verge of reinstalling windows :/
Hi,
If you tried the above methods and you still cannot remove it as me, please try to search you machine for the files:fast-browser-search.xml, fbstoolbar.jar, fbstoolbar.manifest and then follow the methods above again. This work for me. I have been tried many method with no luck and then I think it should have something that reinstall the BAD toolbar in the black ground and I found it. These files auto install the BAD toolbar after you remove it, work as a virus, isn’t it?
Hope this help
Thanks for the added info. I’ve added some more info about what file and folders to look for. I suspect many people think this is the only post about removing it. But here is another when all else has failed and your willing to get in and delete files and folders yourself.
http://www.pccybertek.com/2009/08/more-my-web-tatto-removal-information/#more-208
Thanks a lot man
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Usually I tend to know what I’m doing with dealing with these things, but this one was just ridiculous.
THANK YOU!!! This crazy thing was driving me BONKERS. It was the softwear that would not go away!! (I agree, this @#$^ should definitely be against the law!). I went through your steps and did one more thing – added the entry 127.0.0.1 http://www.fastbrowsersearch.com in my hosts file. No more Web Tattoos for me!
Thanks Linda. I never had to change my hosts file but that may help others.
Thank you thank you thank you……
tnx a lot chris…the about:config thing and in filter type fast then those 4 culprits i reset them…it did help alot..im using firefox and i think the fastbrowser search came from facebook…now its gone…
tnx chris…about:config did help…im using firefox and i think the fast browser came from facebook…now its gone
THANK YOU!!! I went as far as emailing their customer service and threatening them with my attorney after several emails asking for their help in removing this garbage. It should be illegal for them to do this in the first place! They are hi-jacking people’s systems!!!
If you’re running a 64-bit computer, it’s very tricky to remove, but mine’s gone! Trust me! I’ve tried EVERYTHING I read on the Internet (including this site) to help me get this off my Firefox browser on a 64-bit Vista OS. I e-mailed the company (Make the Web Better), and they gave me a phone number to call for assistance (see below). Here’s what I did. If it doesn’t work for you, call the number. Despite their pain-in-the-butt product, they were very nice and helped me get it off using these instructions:
(1) With Firefox open, open the tools, click add-ons, click extensions. (Of course, it wasn’t there. If it was, I assume he would have had me remove it.)
(2) Close all open applications of Firefox.
(3) Open the “control panel”, click “programs” then “programs and features”. In classic view, just click “programs and features”. (Again, it wasn’t there – I’d already removed it. If it was there, I assume he would have had me remove it.)
(4) Open “computer”. Click the local drive (usually C). Open the folder “Program Files (x86). Open the folder “Mozilla” or “Mozilla Firefox”, whichever one you have there. Then open the folder “Chrome”. Remove both files labeled “fast”.
(5) Click the back button and open the file “searchplugins”. Remove any of these that are there: fbstoolbar, fbstoolbar.jar, fbstollbar.manifest.
(6) Close the window by clicking the red X in the upper right corner.
(7) Open your Firefox browser. It should be gone!
If this doesn’t work, contact their support line:
1-800-831-8940 from Monday to Friday between the hours of 9am – 5pm eastern standard time
Thank you!!!! I was about to throttle my boyfriend for installing this crap.
I have done all the steps several times and still cannot access google? In “about:config” under “fast” nothing appears. “fbs” nothing appears. I never had a fbrowser folder in program files? It has to be hiding somewhere if google still doesn’t work, HELP!! This is quite annoying!!
thanks for your guideline to remove ‘Fast Browser Search’ as a default.
OMG!
It worked!
Thank you so much, 1000 times, I finally get rid of that stupid stuff
Thank you Chris and Ed!!!!!!!!!!
muchas gracias amigo.
Thank you very much for your help (my web tatoo ) has been a very annoying program,extension and add on to my Firefox browser
Hey guy, you are great. Thanks a lot!
Thanks! It worked for me!
I hope Facebook realizes soon that this addon is no good and takes it out of circulation…
THANK THE GODS. This THING was making my life a living hell. You are a lifesaver, and I’m very grateful you figured out how to remove this. I can use my firefox again.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Thank you! Very happy to get rid of this stupid and annoying fast browser stuff…!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
)
thank you !
i hated fast browser haha
Just to echo the others that it’s a great post and thank!
Let this remind us never to be tricked into installing anything no matter how bright and shiny…
http://help.fastbrowsersearch.com/uninstall.aspx gives directions for removing this from various browsers without you having to be web-savvy. I could not get it to go away following the about:config directions given here. It kept coming back. Maybe I didn’t know how to put the reset changes into effect.
soo yeah. chris i read ur post, follow ur tips..but i have a problem. people are saying there able 2 unistall the fast web browser but i CANT! i go to add/remove and i click on remove and nothing happens. How can i fix that. Should i reinstall it and try removing it that way?
I wouldn’t reinstall it. It’s just a registry entry that shows it in add and remove program if you no the rest of the program is gone. I don’t remember the exact registry key, but if you search your registry for the name of the program that is still in your add and remove programs you can delete that registry key. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can do a google search for something like “remove program listed in add remove programs registry” and there should be a good tutorial. Maybe I’ll just write one but I don’t have the time right now.
worked fine, all gone thanks:))
thank you! but it don’t fix it totally… hope that after one muore try it finally let me alone XD
very good post!
Thank you very much, Celia!
I want to thank you. I had no idea how bad this thing was till today.
Just follow the uninstall instructions on http://help.fastbrowsersearch.com/uninstall.aspx
No probs at all removing this crap.
It’s not going away. I tried uninstalling (My Web Tattoo, Fast Browser Search, and Search Guard Plus), I tried uninstalling/reinstalling (Firefox), I tried about:config, I tried everything. I want my Google back. Is there anything else I could try? Please? I’m desperate.
Steps I used on my xp-64 Machine
I actually called them, and they were cooperative. This is what I had done up to getting stuck.
Deleted all the BS listed above.
In IE, in the upper right go to manage search providers, and delete fast browser search.
All is well except if you do the about:config in FF they will reset themselves over and over. Even if you uninstall/reinstall.
When I called they said you need to manually delete some files in your FF folder.
Go to “My Computer”>%Windows installation drive” (usually C:)>Program Files(x86)>Mozilla Firefox>Chrome
Delete fbstoolbar.jar and fbstoolbar.manifest.
If you don’t, you will reset about:config from sunup to sundown and make no progress.
I do PC work, but never again will I dL anything I’m not sure of before investigating it first.
I also checked in about:config browser.search.defaultenginename right clicked it to google as well as browser.search.defaulturl then browser.search.selectedEngine Google All fixed!!
“did you ever know that you’re my hero … ” – stinking Fast Browser Search! To Hades with you!!!
DAMN! I did it.. I wrote about:config in firefox and I reseted those things with fbs on it. THAN I searched for fbs in about:config and a lot of names came up, all fbs, and I could not reset because that option wasn’t there!!!!!! What Am I suppose to do? This %&#! is freaking me out
I still with this. I did everything you said. I searched for fbs in about:config and a lot of strings came up. I tried to reset them but it couldn’t. THIS THING IS REALLY FREAKING ME OUT
oye , estaba desesperado pero gracias a tu mensaje lo pude desabilitar.
esta todo muy bien explicado . exelente
I did the following instruction but nothing happen?
why?
my fast browser search toolbar still in my firefox
I wasn’t able to take it off completly by following these steps. After I removed manually the files, the bars were still there. What I did was to INSTALL THE PROGRAM AGAIN by searching the file mywebtattoo.exe in the TEMP folder and to uninstall it later on through the Windows unistalled. That removed EVERYTHING and I didn’t need to modify anything else. I suggest to try this option first.
Like many others I have had much difficulty removing this crap from my computer. By the time I got to your blog I had already removed all the folders and files you listed in c:programs and c:users and I had already tried about:config with the filter fast but it wasn’t until I read your blog about filtering with fbs that I really found them all. Other than it being listed in my add/remove programs list (which I cannot remove) I find no other traces of it. I will add that I did the about:config trick about 2 or 3 times before I really got everything. Closing and re-opening my browser each time. Thanks for the fbs filter.
thank you so much! That f*ckn’ FBS killed me man!
hey I want to thank you so much for all this details. I finally got rid of it.
I’ve tried all of the tips here, still plagued with FastBrowser. I’ve done about:config and clicked “reset” on every occurrence. I’ve also deleted it from AddOns, and Remove from the “Manage Search Engines” Nothing has worked.
Any advice? email me at shoresy70 AT yahoo.com
Thanks,
Mark
Thank you so much for this post. “So long” stupid Fast Browser and “Welcome back Google”.
Cheers
Madisen
http://www.MadisenHarper.com
I found everything in the “about:config”, but I do not have az options “reset” if I right-click.
Thanks man!!!! your a GOD… cheers
Unfortunately, none of this has completely rid this junk from my wife’s laptop. Tried it all. It is so embedded that it just reinstalls itself and I have to start all over again. The spyware companies need to come up with a solution…
Just as a side note, but having this on your website “IF YOU FIND THIS HELPFUL PLEASE CLICK ON ONE OF THE GOOGLE ADS TO HELP SUPPORT THIS SITE. ” you are risking getting banned by Adsense. That is against their terms of service!
THANK YOU!!!! This company should be closed down. Shame on you Facebook for propagating…
hi, big help! thanks a lot!
Excelent post!
Hey, when I type in about:config it says, attention, this may void your warranty and gets you to confirm you know what you are doing ‘I promise’ (actual words). Am I ok to go ahead? Did you have that.?
REPLY
yeah it’s not a problem
-Chris
I’ve tried this several times now -when I restart the browser, it’s back to Fast Browser Search again, I go back into about:config and they’re re-reset to bloody Fast Browser Search! And there’s one at the bottom of the list of five “keyword.URL; that I can’t reset at all.
Have they redesigned it to make it even more perniciously hard to kill?! I’ve reported it to Kaspersky already.
Nice info but in my case the fast browser search is not even showing on my addon list. Also link from add remove program is not working and so is the uninstall.exe in the main program folder. Even the about:config cannot help me now. I think its time to reinstall my firefox.
Thanks for your info
Life
visit http://www.todleho.com for friends, games, blogs and cool stuff
Thank you so much, that FBS really was a nightmare, and I will be sure not to install anything from FB again.
I got rid of it by doing this
Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, uninstalled “Fast Search Toolbar”
It wouldn’t work at first, but then I remembered that I had deleted the Fast Search Toolbar folder from %Program Files%, which included the Uninstall.exe
Good thing I hadn’t cleaned my Recycling Bin.., so I restored the folder, then went back to Add/Remove Program, and it worked!
So all I have to say, try uninstalling it from Add/Remove Programs before manually deleting the folder under %Program Files%
Thanks, it helped a lot!!!
Thanks. Fast browser was driving me nuts!!
OMG!!!
U love u!
asuhaushuahs
thanks so much
THANKS !!!
)
What a nightmare o_O’
But thanks to you, it’s behind me
Hey!
I want to let you know Your notice was very big help for me!
Thank you!
I had the same problem on my computer. I did a lot of research and finally found the company’s phone number. I spoke to a customer service rep and they were actually very helpful. They helped me get the program off of my computer very easily. Their number is 1-800-831-8940 I hope this helps.
Thanks!! I was able to get most of it removed awhile ago, but finally got fbs out of my search bar
thanks a lot!
Take care~
Chris, thanks a lot! My Tattoo is like a cancer! Too bad!
Well, a great big seasons greetings to you. Thank you for getting this off my computer. SHAME on you Facebook.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I so appreciate your post and was able to remove stupid Fast Browser. I almost NEVER install Facebook third party apps but the offer to “Grinch Myself” was too good to resist. They grinched me all right! Fast Browser was driving me nuts! Now it’s history and you are the one to thank!
I tried everything but ended up doing a clean reinstallation of FF. That worked!
guys… really easy way
1. extra>options>general>manage add-ons>de-install =)
@Viper Lord: that’s got it. I was having the same trouble as many of the other posters were of it constantly coming back but deleting those 2 files seem to have finished it off.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
oh god thank you,, you did resolve my problem,,
God bless u more guys,, thanks again,,,
THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!THANK YOU!!!!
Another easy way is to get the free open source SpyBot search and destroy – it will do all the work for you and not only for the above annoying software but also for any other kind that you may have on your system ! If you like SpyBot please donate !
Tried a couple times doing this but it kept coming back. Started firefox in safemode, reset all defaults, saved and restarted and this did it. Didnt even show any fbs or fast items under config search.
I use Flock as a browser, I want to get that Fast Web Search out of my choices because I change it back to Dogpile and it seems to always change it back to Fast Web even though I deleted it from the add-ons
thank you soo much for this it was driving me nuts!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU – I WANT TO DONATE HOW TO DO IT ?
Thank goodness for awesome people like you who are willing to share their knowledge with those of us not so smart with computers! Thanks for showing me how to rid my self of this pesky addon.
remove this please its messing up my computer
hi guy for safari try removing the following folder ~/Library/safari
also remove ~/Library/cache/com.apple.safari
& ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.safari.plist
this seems to have worked for me but be careful to back up your booklist plist from ~/Library/Safari you can move this file back afterwards.
I found the above resets safari. reinstalling safari will not help as issue does not occur in a new user account.
You are all making this incredibly complicated. This company offers a customer support line dedicated to handling all technical issues on any browser / operating system combination. If you simple call their number: 1-800-831-8940, they will help you remove the software.
The customer service rep I spoke with was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. It took about 5 minutes to remove it from my computer completely. Don’t waste your time reading these directions, just call the support line.
You are a star – i will think twice about letting the kids use my laptop in future – fastbrowse has been annoying me for weeks.
Yay!! Thanks so much, I got my google back!
You’re amazing.
Thank you for posting this, I hate when people tell you to go to the control panel and uninstall it from add remove programs, well our first reaction is to uninstall it, but it obviously didn’t work or we wouldn’t be searching the web.
Thanks Jerry. I agree 100% If it was as simple as going to add & remove programs we wouldn’t be having this discussion at all. In fact, if it had worked for M Lewis why did he need to even call that number? When I was first hit by this, there was little info about it or the company that released it. So I just sat down and tried to figure out how to remove it. Then I decided that I would post my experience because I figured that there could be someone else out there that was having the same problem. I never guessed that I would get over 1800 page views (at it’s peak) per day. Had I know that, I would have tried to write it up better. I had very little traffic here before that post and figured maybe a handful of people would have seen it.
“Thank you for posting this, I hate when people tell you to go to the control panel and uninstall it from add remove programs, well our first reaction is to uninstall it, but it obviously didn’t work or we wouldn’t be searching the web.”
If I were taking bets, I’ll bet you are correct and that 99.9999% of the people who read this did just what you said. Like you said, why would they even search for how to remove it if they hadn’t tried used and remove programs in control panel, first. Besides, I think some people might learn a little something about how these buggers work and hopefully they learned something that can save them a trip or a call to a tech.
Thanks for your insight Jerry.
-Chris PC CyberTek
FIRST PLACE TO GO TO ATTEMPT TO REMOVE THIS IS YOUR ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS IN YOUR CONTROL PANEL. All these other steps did not remove this from my computer.
If you can’t get it removed this way call their suport 1-800-831-8940 and like one other person above said the support people are very pleasant and helpful. He actually walked me thru the process because my antivirus was preventing me from re-installing FBS in order to delete.
If you can remove from add/remove you also need to remove Safeguard Plus and and other program that has Safeguard in the name to completely remove.
I tried posting on this site yesterday and had no luck so hopefully this post will show.
Keep it simple and remove from add/remove programs.
Thanks for your comment. I did post the phone number to that place as well. So it’s up to the reader. If you want to learn how to remove this stuff, you can follow my posts. It has worked for tons of people and I’m still receiving thank yous from people that it has worked for. For most people, calling the number and having them walk you through it is probably the way to. Hopefully they really remove all of and not just the annoying redirection. For those who want to learn how to remove it and other programs in the future that might have similar attacks, they can learn something from how I did it. If it were me and I was going through this again, I would still try to remove it myself. It’s part of my never ending learning process. While I was removing this, I did learn about how some malware attacks your computer, where it hides stuff and an idea of how to defeat problems like this in the future. If I was unable to remove it and wanted to give up, then I would call the number and hope they are removing all of it. BTW: maybe I forgot to mention it, but I did try Add and Remove first but it didn’t get rid of it and when I deleted some files, it kept downloading them again.
Nothing wrong with just calling the number for help, but I personally like to fix things and figure out the how and why so next time I might be able to do it myself. Most people probably don’t want to go through all that and they should call the number. When I posted the phone number before, when I couldnt get it to install in IE, I did ask that if anyone called the number to let me know how it went. So thank you for letting me and the readers know about your experience. What would be great is if someone could tell us what they had you do besides add/remove programs because the version I had wasn’t gone after I did that. I suspect that it may be easier to uninstall now than it was when I wrote the original / first article because the number of people looking to remove it has dropped way off after peaking in December. So it appears to me that it isn’t as bad as it was before.
Thanks for your comment M Lewis.
Chris
Thanks dude. You are a lifesaver.
Cheers
Tks a lot!
This was making me crazy…
whew! I’ve been trying to rid myself of this crap for days! Mine did not come up in the ADD/REMOVE programs. The only thing that worked was resetting the about:config in Firefox followed by removing the stupid FAST BROWSER SEARCH in the Manage Search Engines drop down box for the millionth time! Hopefully it’s gone for good!
After follwing all the steps suggested above, Superantispyware 4.34.1000 finally got it for. malwarebytes saw it but remained after taking actions to remove. Update defs often, run in regular then in safe mode.
Thanks Chris
Thanks! I hope this works. A word of warning though, I found several references to Fast Browser Search in the registry. Removing them did not solve the problem.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Search Assistant/TBS07183/Toolbar is one. There were several others.
Thank you SOOOOOOOO MUCH!
It’s working fine, now!
You, my friend, are a genius!!! A million and one thanks!!!
Thank you very much!
really thanks
THANK YOU!!! YOU ARE A VERY HIGH RATED PC GURU IN MY EYES!!!!! i am a sworn-in and proud of it google-ite with OCD and the not being able to search from my address bar like i have done for 6 yrs was driving me utterly batty!!! and yes, i definitely learned my lesson about tatoodle, etc!!! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Thanks Kari. It’s comments like yours that motivate me to keep on writing these specially when I don’t earn anything from ad revenue.
Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou…..finally I got rid of this fuc…g shit.
It took me almost 1 month to figure out how to remove this ***** than thank god i came across your site.
Thank you very much for you help.
I will try this.
I like this because if enough noise is made about crap like this that ruins your computer experience- the more chance someone will come up with even easier answers.
Wow! Thank you so much, I felt that fast web search was slowing down my fire fox! I can’t thank you enough for this tutorial. Jeez! this was a bitch to uninstall! I would have never done it without you. You’re doing god’s work my friend ;P
Thank you soooo much! I’ve been trying to get rid of it for a while now. I’m mighty glad I stumbled onto your page.
Thanks a lot. it was a pia. now that i removed feel so good.
I really enjoyed this post, especially the “examples in this post” portion which made it really easy for me to SEE what you were talking about without even having to leave the article. Thanks
followed yours and the guy below with the fbs and i think that did it. i thought it would never ever be gone ty ty ty
Thank you .Nothing else had worked til this .I was one who had no plug-ins ,ext’s, or any listing of fastbrowser .The about:config was the only way and don”t forget to search fbs after you look for fast.I found lots more listings under fbs search. I also called Make The Web Better ( fastbrowser”s distributors). on their toll free 800-831-8940.On Sunday got voice mail for the company but during the week the phone was answered and they say they are another company in the same building getting MTWB calls by mistake. What a crock!
HOLY CRAP! I have never seen a program that was such a nightmare to get rid of!! Shame on the company(s) that did this. I never even downloaded the mytattoo thing. I had to do that about:config thing over and over and the manage add-ons several times too. I am almost afraid to relax and think that I really did get rid of the entire thing for reals LOL. I am going to put a link to your site on my FB for others. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for posting this and helping all of us that curse every time we opened a new tab to see that damn thing! YOU ARE THE BEST!!!!!!
Your the man !!! Thanks for the info to rid me of this piece of rubbish.
Anybody distributing Malware like this should be releived of their dangly bits and I would gladly volunteer to participate on the selection.
Thanks again
Roger
thanks that crap was lame!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!! I can sleep at night now that horrible thing is gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve done several searches to find how to remove Fast Browser Search and they all come up with an answer like this. I have an additional problem…. I don’t have my menu bar or any of my buttons on my toolbar. How else can I get to the areas you are referring to so that I can remove this?
This works… but for dummies like me, don’t forget to download thunderbird so you can actually GET to about config…took me days to realize that!
Thanks, I finally got rid of that fast browser
It brought all kinds of junk in.
Glad to have it gone
Does anyone have a solution for Internet explorer, all I see is Firefox users. I have shredded evry file in the folder, deleted the folders from the program files but it still shows in the add/remove programs section. I cant get rid of it and continues to show errors every time I boot my computer. please help.
Thanks
I’m having the same probelm with something called browser search, when I try this and write “fast” nothing comes up, any help will be much apreciated…
I’m sorry Diego, but I’m not familiar with that one. The first step would be to identify what it is. If you can find one of the suspect.exe’s you can submit it to http://www.virustotal.com That will tell you the name of the virus/malware and which antivirus programs recognize it. You can then download a free or trial version from one the companies that lists it. Or search the web, which you obviously are doing if your here, for a removal program or instructions.
IE 8 users, this worked for me in removing fastbrowser search. Will probabluy work on IE7 too, but did not check. After trying the multiple of things listed on this page and many others, i could not completely remove fastbrowsersearch, until….. I opened IE8 and clicked on “Tools”, then “Internet Options”, then the “Advanced” tab and at the bottom is a “Reset” button that takes IE back to default settings. After restarting IE8, no indications of fastbrowsersearch anywhere and all my favorites were still intact. Hope this helps you in your battles with the dreaded fastbrowsersearch.
Sweet blog! I found it while searching on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying unsucessufly. Appreciate it!
I have the same problem! I am still working hard now! Hop this helps!
I found your blog on yahoo. I think it’s awesome.
you are very wise
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