BleepingComputer.com: Bing removal

Okay the other day, I upgraded my IE8. Unknowing that I would be installing MSN toolbar and Bing.com. It left my homepage as is. But everytime I open IE, two windows automatically open - 1) my homepage and 2) Bing page.

I did go to my computer and uninstall MSN toolbar and restarted my computer. When I opened up IE, it was still there. So I closed my "Favorites" toolbar, just so I wouldn't have to see it.

On another forum they had suggested going to Tools > Manage add-ons > Search providers & Accelerators and take out all the bing.coms. Which I did. (I just checked and they are still gone).

When I go to my computer and look through the list, there is no bing.com. And the only IE8 is the one that was installed 6/20/09.

I even did a search for a "bing.com" file (hidden folder included).

So, my question is do y'all know how to get rid of Bing.com and the MSN toolbar? Is there something I haven't thought of yet?

Thank you in advance for any light you can shed. I'm a Googler and don't like MSN taking control of me and my computer.

Hi!

For your homepage problem, have you checked your internet options? Maybe Bing is set as one of the homepages?

I don't know what you did...but IE isn't responsible.

Bing is not event the default search option...Windows Live Search is...so if Bing is a search option in your IE 8, you can simply go Tools/Manage Add-ons and remove it or change. Looking at other threads...it appears that Bing is related to IE 6.

MSN is the default home page when IE 8 is installed. Just like any other homepage, it can be changed by simply navigating to the website you want (I use Google), then go Tools/Internet Options...change the selection on the General tab.

For those (like me) who do not want Live anything...removing the Live Search can be a minor nuisance. The trick is add the search engine you want...then you can remove the (former default) Live Search.

Louis

According to this, Bing is now the default search engine for IE8.






http://www.fettesps.com/how-to-uninstall-bing/

I just did a clean install of XP thru SP3 less than 6 hours ago and then installed IE 8 as an update. Trust me, Bing was not the default on the IE 8 I obtained via WUS.

I would not put it past Microsoft, just reporting recent events I know something about today. If Bing is listed under Manage Add-Ons as the default, it doesn't parallel my experiences today.

Louis

When I go to Manage Add-ons, before I deleted the bing.coms and live.coms, Google was my default search engine. My home page has never changed.

It's when I initially open IE - 2 windows open up simultaneously. One is my homepage (Tupperware) and one is Bing. But if I open a new tap it comes up Google.

I know Bing is not in the original version of IE8. What happended was the other day, I received an update for IE8 called IE8 Optimizer. When I downloaded it I didn't know they were attaching Bing and MSN Toolbar, but nothing happens when you try to uninstall MSN toolbar.

I have a dell and don't have the XP disc to reinstall and wouldn't necessarily know how to save the stuff on my computer before installing. And I don't know how to go thru SP3 to download XP unless its via office.microsoft.com.?
Do you think if I uninstall the IE8 original version and reinstall that Bing would go away?

I tried what Frank suggested by going to my computer > c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts and adding those to addresses.....it didn't work either. When I opened IE back up, the same 2 windows open up.

This post has been edited by Ellen S.: 28 January 2010 - 10:55 PM

aommaster, on Jan 28 2010, 05:18 PM, said:

Thank you! I just learned there can be more than one homepage. Thank you aommaster. Evidently it sets itself as a second homepage.

Thank you for everyone's help. I really appreciate it.

Ellen S.

I think IE8 Optimizer is an optional update. I'm not interested in it but it explains what happened.