Many of you have heard me moan about my creaky old computer. We need to buy a new machine, and, for me, it's not the expense so much as the bother of starting over on a new computer and learning its ways. When we purchase a new computer, the hard drive of the old machine will be cleaned and will belong to Grandpère, and we won't have to argue over who gets to use the computer. He won't have nearly the amount of information on his computer as I have, so the old one with my stuff removed should serve him quite well.
Lately, the old girl (our computer is a girl) has been running extremely slowly. I'd noticed that when I downloaded the latest version of Firefox that AVG Secure Search came up on the right of my toolbar. When I tried to remove the AVG add-on, the entire toolbar disappeared. What I did not know is that AVG Secure Search had been made my default search engine. Still it bugged me having it there, because I didn't want what I thought was an unnecessary add-on. I went online to the forums to try to find a fix, and the instructions were either so complicated that I couldn't follow them, or they called for a download to remove the function, so I still had no solution, because I'm wary of downloads which I know nothing about.
Hurray!!! Yesterday, I found the solution myself, and it was quite simple. There was a tiny arrow next to the the words "AVG Secure Search" in the search bar in the right hand corner of the toolbar. When I clicked on the tiny arrow (the very, very tiny arrow), a drop-down menu appeared, and that's when I discovered that AVG Secure Search had become my default search engine. When I changed to Google and deleted AVG Secure Search as a choice, my computer speeded up amazingly. AVG Security has served me well for a couple of years, but this sneaky bit of adjustment to my computer, which I neither wanted or needed, annoyed me beyond measure. I hate it when any program clandestinely loads my computer with functions that I don't want or need. Take note, AVG Security!
I love to hate technology.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, I do, too, although I must admit it's a love-hate situation.
ReplyDeleteDoes your girl computer have a name, Mimi? ...
ReplyDeleteYes, Cathy. Her name starts with F and has four letters.
ReplyDeleteFor trying to sneak software onto your computer by stealth, either Yahoo! or Apple will take the prize. It seems that many programs I download and install have sneaky checkboxes for the Yahoo! toolbar and search engine. I have so far been able to avoid all of them.
ReplyDeleteI managed to avoid the AVG toolbar and search, but my partner may not have. I shall have to investigate, as this kind of stealthware is and can be a pain.
Hope your new computer works well. I have found that transferring to a new computer is traumatic, so I'll light a candle that you'll have an easier time of it than I did.
Chris, I have not taken the plunge into the purchase of a new computer yet. Since I removed AVG Safe Search, my computer runs faster, so I'll nurse it along for a while. The change to a new computer is always traumatic for me, which is why I hang on to old machines for so long.
ReplyDeleteYahoo continues to attempt to be my default search engine in sneaky ways, and Apple persists in trying to get me to change to Safari through my iTunes account. I have to be really careful about which little boxes are checked when I download an update to iTunes.
Mimi,
ReplyDeleteAVG Searchbar is just an addon. You can disable all addon's by going to tools addons and disable the ones you don't want.
If you disable them all, your browser will run very much faster.
UKViewer, A good many of the add-ons are disabled with the new version of Firefox, except for Java. May I disable all the Java add-ons?
ReplyDeleteThank you, I could not figure out how to get rid of that damn AVG secure search, not even all the geek forums had a solution. Now its back to good ol' Google. :)
ReplyDeleteMemarie Lane, I'm glad you found my solution helpful. I'm amazed that none of the forums suggested the simple fix that worked for you and me.
ReplyDeleteYou, great lady, have just made my night. For serious.
ReplyDeleteJes, I am so very technologically challenged that I can't believe I was a help to anyone else. You made my day!!!
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU SO MUCH!!
ReplyDeleteJust happened to me too and this helped!!!
Anonymous, you're quite welcome. Before now, I was quite pleased with AVG, but I believe they're wrong to stealthily foist upon us their unwanted search engine simply because we use their security program.
ReplyDeleteHi Mimi,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear that you felt the search and add-on were stealthily.
Basically when you download and install AVG, you are asked if you'd like to use these features.
If you decided to do so and still regret afterwards, it should not be a problem to disable the add-on.
And by the way - the toolbar should not cause any performance issues.
Myself, I pretty much hate toolbars in general, but you have to admit that the AVG toolbar has some benefits (the security features) - it's not like most toolbars which are just there taking space and doing nothing but annoy the user with advertisements.
Or Hitch, thanks, but it's not easy to get rid of AVG search. It's still there on my other computer. If the function is so easy to avoid or remove, why did my post strike such a chord? Folks are still clicking on this page. My laptop runs on Vista, and I thought I had removed the function, but now it's back again, and I have not yet discovered how to, once again, remove AVG Search there.
ReplyDeleteMy computer searches speeded up once I removed the function.
Im not one to usualy use big words..but THANK YOU!!!!! You saved my day!
ReplyDeleteGlad I could help, Anon.
ReplyDeleteFrom the avg logo dropdown I navigated to uninstall and when I clicked "OK" nothing happened. I still have this pita avg stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I feel your pain. The AVG search kept coming back after I managed to get rid of it, so I was annoyed enough that I changed to another virus-protection plan.
ReplyDelete