Over on a google forum is a link to my first post on removing Fast Browser Search from Firefox. So I subscribed to that thread and today when I checked my e-mail, I found this in it, how to remove Fast Browser Search from IE7 & IE8

Re: [Web Search Help] How do I remove “Fast Browser Search”?

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show details Oct 14 (9 days ago)

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date Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 12:35 AM
subject Re: [Web Search Help] How do I remove “Fast Browser Search”?
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hide details Oct 14 (9 days ago)

Kundan555 has posted an answer to the question “How do I remove “Fast Browser Search”?”:

PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS AND RESOLVE THE ISSUE FOR IE8 AND IE7.

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Please uninstall fast browser from the program and features in vista and, add and remove program in XP. Then

To fix the new tab issue you need to be comfortable using regedit. Run regedit and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerAboutURLs

under Tabs, clear the fastwebsearch junk and input the following as value data:

res://ieframe.dll/tabswelcome.htm or any entry related with fastbrowser listed over there.

close and restart IE.

I have been unable to verify this, however my knowledge of the registry tells me this could fix it and would be worth trying. Just be CAREFUL any time you run regedit. Messing around in the registry could really bork your system.

Here’s the links to my other Fast Browser Search removal posts

http://www.pccybertek.com/2009/08/my-web-tattoo-fast-browser-search-search-gurad-plus-uninstall-removal/

http://www.pccybertek.com/2009/08/more-my-web-tatto-removal-information/

http://www.pccybertek.com/2009/07/removing-my-web-tattoo-phone-number/

http://www.pccybertek.com/2009/06/project-web-tattoo-fast-browser-search-removal-update/

http://www.pccybertek.com/2009/06/project-web-tattoo-fast-browser-search-remove-part-1/

http://www.pccybertek.com/2009/05/remove-fast-browser-search/

Official Tattoodle Uninstall Page

It still doesn’t tell you how to fix the search redirection in Firefox so if that still plagues you, I have a guide for that here

If that still doesn’t fix it for you, and you have some basic computer skills, my next post may be the one to help you.

Ok lets look at the first part of the Threat Expert report:

The following files were created in the system:
%ProgramFiles%Fast Browser SearchIEbasis.xml
%ProgramFiles%Fast Browser SearchIEfbsSearchProvider.xml
%ProgramFiles%Search Guard PlusfbsSearchProvider.xml
c:userspublicMyWebTattoo.exe
Note:
%ProgramFiles% is a variable that refers to the Program Files folder. A typical path is C:Program Files.

First off, you might have to do this in safe mode. Chances are one or more of these programs will be running and you won’t be able to delete them. So reboot in safe mode if you can’t delete any file. Leaving one may be used to reinstall the rest of it.

The main directory it created was C:Program FilesFast Browser Search with other files and directories beneath it. So lets kill it! Delete the folder C:Program FilesFast Browser Search and everything in it.
Next we need delete the folder C:ProgramFilesSearch Guard Plus and all of it’s files. And now we need to delete the file (not a folder) C:userspublicMyWebTattoo.exe

Ok Let’s look at the next section-

The following directories were created:
%ProgramFiles%Search Guard Plus
%ProgramFiles%Search Guard PlusU
%ProgramFiles%Fast Browser Search
%ProgramFiles%Fast Browser SearchIE
%ProgramFiles%Search Guard PlusUTmp
%ProgramFiles%SGPSA
c:users (DO NOT DELETE THIS FOLDER!)
c:userspublic (DO NOT DELETE THIS FOLDER!)

Ok we want to the same thing and kill all those folders EXCEPT c:users & c:userspublic Do Not Delete Those Two!! Other windows programs may use what is in them. Remember that %ProgramFiles% is your default Program Files folder location which is most likely C:Program Files. So the first folder above would translate to C:Program FilesSearch Guard Plus and the next would be C:Program FilesSearch Guard PlusU and so on for the rest of the folders.

If it’s still there, delete MyWebTattoo.exe that is in c:userspublic folder. This should get rid of all the programs that have been installed and keep it from running and reinstalling itself. I’m not going to go through the registry line by line. Editing the registry isn’t something to do unless you know exactly what your doing. There are a couple of programs that it’s trying to load when windows starts, but the programs themselves are in the folders we deleted so they can’t launch.

And I found a phone number that was on the EULA page for Make The Web Better, which is the first program that is downloaded from the My Web Tattoo page. I suggest if you haven’t been able to get it removed from Internet Explorer yet, you follow the advice on their page

If you experience any problems installing and/or
uninstalling the Software Product, please contact us via email at: info@make-the-web-better.com, or call us at: 1 (800) 831-8940.

I’m still working on removing it. I can’t get it installed on IE 7 on my test computer. So I’ve been doing some other stuff like running it in a sandbox to see what it does. I’ve identified several registry keys that are affected and where it’s sending data to. I just got this info though and I’m in the middle of a computer repair job that should have been done already. So when I get some more time I’ll write up what I have found about removing it and more.

In the meant time, there is the number you can all. You can leave comments on how it went if you do call them. I’m sure others will be interested in how they helped you.

So it’s back the drawing board. Just writing this has given me a couple of ideas of why it won’t install this time. I haven’t given up but I’m afraid it’s already taking longer than I expected. So stay tuned and with any luck, the next update will be the solution.

UPDATE: Here is some info I found about removing fast browser search from Internet Explorer (IE) http://www.pccybertek.com/2009/10/remove-fast-browser-search-from-ie-7-ie8

The story thus far. For some reason I decided to install web tattoo. I knew it was probably going to install something else. Rule #1 – Programs on the internet that claim to be free, especially add-ons for social sites, aren’t really free. I just figured I could uninstall whatever it slipped in. After I uninstalled Web Tattoo, from FireFox and using add and remove programs in the windows control panel, and it was still redirecting my traffic to Fast Browser Search, I’d just remove it with Spybot or Ad-Aware or Hi-Jack This and remove it from the registry. However, none of these detected it and I couldn’t find any sign of it in the registry. Then I did a search on the internet and couldn’t find anything about removing it either. So I did some thinking and figured out how to remove it. Seeing how there was such a lack of articles dealing with this pest, I figured it would be the perfect thing for my blog. So I wrote this article on how I removed it from FireFox .

Next thing I know there’s a spike in the traffic coming to my little unknown blog. I was happy to learn that referrers were search engine results for “fast browser remove” and other similar queries. All of them looking for a way to take out this blasted thing. For a short time, my blog was on the first page in google if you were searching for a way to remove it. This got me pretty jazzed. I’ve had this blog for a couple years but never had much traffic before. After a couple weeks, the traffic to that article I wrote started tapering off. I was no longer in the first page or two when people searched for it. Then all the sudden it spiked again. Turns out someone on a google forum had Fast Browser Search take over their browser. Next thing I know I’m getting a ton of hits again, this time all comming from this post. Now if the people this helped would just click on my google adds, I could earn a couple cents in this tough economy

There was only one problem. My article only covered how to remove it from FireFox. Turns out there are plenty of people with Internet Explorer who have been attacked by this scourge known as Fast Browser Search. So here is what I’m going to do. Initially I was going to install Windows XP on a virtual Machine. But this would take quite some time and work before I could deliberately infect myself with Fast Browser Search. So I decided to take a short cut. After I’m done writing this, I’m going to create a new user account in windows, head over to Facebook and install Web Tattoo while using Internet Explorer. Then I’m going to figure out how to remove it and write part 2 of this article. So check back in a day or so, hopefully it won’t take me longer than that to figure out. If you would like to show some appreciation, click on my google adds, or leave me a reply. I love getting replies and hearing from you.