Unable to remove Yahoo spigot

[fitzgerald]

Hi,

I'm using Google chrome on a macbook pro [10.7.5], and recently, whenever I open chrome, the default search engine is Yahoo. I really want to get rid of this and change the default back to google, but I can't figure out how to do it. I've cleared the cache & deleted cookies, and I also went into settings/manage search engines, and completely removed Yahoo from there.
I tried changing the DNS settings too, but nothing seems to work the url that comes up when I open chrome is ""http://uk.search.yahoo.com/?fr=spigot-yhp-gcmac&ilc=12&type=435714""

I'm kind of at a loss about what to do next! If anyone has any advice I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[vansmith]

Have you installed any Yahoo software (and that includes any subsidiaries as well including Flickr)? It sounds like some piece of software is "fixing" things for you.

 

[fitzgerald]

I think I installed when I downloaded Vuze. Would that make sense? I've since deleted Vuze from my laptop, hoping that would help, but no luck

 

[vansmith]

It might make sense if Vuze made the change (I have no idea - don't use it). Has this happened to any other browsers?

 

[fitzgerald]

Yes, it's happened to all the browsers I have installed - firefox, chrome, and safari

It's very annoying as I'm unable to even use the search bar at the top of chrome, or go to the google homepage manually - I think that it's been blocked.

 

[fitzgerald]

Aha! I think I've fixed it!

Incase anyone else has a similar issue, to get rid of it, I did the following;

I went to Chrome, clicked the little list icon in the top right corner, and then clicked View Background Pages. A little box pops up, and at the bottom of the list- the yahoo extension. I removed that completely - by highlighting it, and then selecting "End Process".

Then I went into Chrome >> Settings. From there, I edited the "On Startup" section. I have "Open a specific page or set of pages" option ticked, so I clicked the link next to that which says "Set Pages". Lo and behold, Yahoo was there, too, so again, I deleted it, and re-added google.

Finally, I went to the "Search" section, and deleted Yahoo as the default search engine for the omnibox. I'd previously done this, but I had to do it again. I also had to reset google as my default browser.

I've exited chrome and reopened it, and everything seems to be back to normal! Hopefully it'll stay that way

 

[jamesm969]

Hey guys,

I found these instructions on how to change the default search engine:

Change default search in Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and Safari

Hope this helps. It worked for me.

 

[greenleo]

I had a similar problem.
I went to Library>Application Support and moved Spigot folder to the trash.
Then I reset my browser settings in Chrome at the bottom of Settings>Advanced Settings

 

[Howard Brazee]

I spent the afternoon removing it. First I tried restoring ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/ from Time Machine. That didn't work. Then I installed Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. That worked, but when I started a new tab in Chrome, it couldn't find the file. Then I deleted the files from Chrome above, and restored again. Everything's working now.

 

[S D Ritchings]

Thanks -- just discovered the same problem, on Mavericks with Safari. Didn't find "spigot" anywhere in my library; I'll try Malwarebytes.

 

[S D Ritchings]

New problem: computer doesn't recognize my ancient and simple password -- twice this week, and while attempting to install the Malwarebytes helper . . .

Any ideas ? I've read what I could about finding/replacing one's password. One suggestion is to attempt to sign in; one then learns whether one's system is set up to create a new password using Apple ID. How do I prompt a sign-in request ?

 

[S D Ritchings]

Yay. Malwarebytes seems to have fixed the Yahoo spigot problem. Thanks Howard and others . . .!

 

[pm-r]

Good to hear, especially from a single one-way conversation…

 

[S D Ritchings]

Oops -- sorry, did I mess up, again ? Please excuse my ignorance (as they call it in the sticks of southeast Massa-you-choosit) . . .!

 

[pm-r]

Hmmm…??? It's OK and BTW, I was always taught that part of the US was called missus-two-t*ts. Oh well…

 

[S D Ritchings]

Hah ! Hadn't heard that one . . .

 

[JoshRoss]

Welp is been a while. Just wanted to revive this for other users that might be experiencing the issues. Since lately surfing through forums noticed that a lot more issues are still happening with this. It doesn't affect just PC, Macs have been plenty affected. Right now these cleanup instructions should suffice. And if there are random PC users wandering into the forum, try your luck here.