Remove Bitdefender Antiphishing Toolbar 2.0 Add-on From Firefox

Chimel

Hi, this toolbar has been incompatible with at least the last 2 versions of Firefox, including the latest, 4.0.

I have seen many threads in this forum about the same problem, and there's even a pinned topic about it here.

Unfortunately, none of the solutions mentioned in these threads work: I don't have the folders or files mentioned on Windows 7, Firefox 4.0, or BitDefender Antivirus Pro 2011, uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox 4.0 and BitDefender Antivirus Pro 2011 (with the BD uninstall tool) does not solve the issue, it seems that BitDefender setup will automatically install this incompatible toolbar.

The pinned topic mentions that this issue is now fixed, but this is incorrect. I need a definitive solution for this recurring problem, even a manual one digging into the Registry and what not.

I would not care usually, but I have my suspicion that even when disabled, this add-on meddles with Firefox toolbars. At the very least, I want to be able to remove it to debug some toolbar misbehaviors.

Firefox will automatically recognize that this add-on is not compatible with it, and therefore will disable it and no such toolbar will show, but because it is not compatible, there is no Uninstall button to remove it.

1) Most critical and urgent: Please provide a solution to permanently disable this add-on

2) Add this add-on as an option during BitDefender setup, not force it upon users (the only toolbar I'll ever use is Google for my bookmarks)

3) Update the add-on to be fully compatible with Firefox, or don't include it at all

4) Check the version of Firefox before installing the add-on, and don't install it if you haven't checked the compatibility for this specific Firefox version

I have a clean install of Windows 7 x64 Ultimate + SP1 + all latest updates, Firefox 4.0, Internet Explorer 9.0 and BitDefender Antivirus Pro 2011.

I haven't installed any add-on at all on Firefox, not even the Google toolbar, but the BD Antiphishing 2.0 Toolbar add-on still shows (as disabled.)

I checked all potential solutions on both Firefox and BitDefender forums, I have no FFToolbar folder, localstore.rdf is clean, I can see nothing about this add-on in the Users and Program Files folders for both apps, and the Registry contains entries only for Internet Explorer as far as I can see, I don't know how Firefox 4.0 add-ons are managed.

There is an as2core folder in Program Files that contain 2 Antiphishing_14202_256 and Antiphishing_14206_257 subfolders, but that's not very helpful, I am really at a loss what to do.

Chimel

So after digging into Firefox Help site about how broken extensions can be removed, I finally managed to solve this problem:

Close Firefox and launch regedit.exe (click on the Windows|Start menu and type regedit.exe)

In regedit, delete the value "FFToolbar@bitdefender.com" from both Registry keys:

- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\

- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\

It contains a pointer to the location of the BitDefender Antiphishing Toolbar 2.0 extension:

C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2011\bdaphffext\

Reopen Firefox, the faulty extension should have disappeared from the Add-ons|Extensions list.

So now it's up to BitDefender to upgrade the extension to actually support recent versions of Firefox, and to make sure the extension is not installed by default if it's not compatible.

I don't understand how this problem is still present, I have seen forum posts dating back to 2009 about this very issue. Even for the recent Firefox 4.0 release, if you have a product that works together with Firefox, you should try it on the 4.0 betas that have been available for ages. This is not professional, you cannot just wait for the official version to be released, this will necessarily generate a huge amount of customer dissatisfaction if something goes wrong and has not been fixed before customers encounter the issue. Needless to say, I am very disappointed.

Unknown

Hello,

The update to fix this issue was released few minutes ago. The update will be available in few hours via the Automatic Update Module within BitDefender.

Please confirm that the issue is resolved after installing the product update and restart the PC.

Regards,

Chimel

@DanyDan Nope, I just downloaded the latest setup executable from bitdefender.com, and the version it installed still creates an incompatible Firefox toolbar extension that is installed by default in the Easy Setup option.

And if I unselect the 2 Firefox antiphishing settings from the Antivirus pane in Expert view, and close/restart Firefox, the toolbar extension is still present in Firefox. I had to remove the 2 registry keys manually again to remove the toolbar add-on.

Come on, creating/deleting registry keys automatically when selecting/unselecting a checkbox can't be that hard!

This is the version I have, there's no more recent update according to BitDefender update feature:

Virus signatures: 7022698

Engine version: 7.36857

Unknown

Hello,

Please read my post again Chimel. I said: an update was released via the Automatic Update module within BitDefender, not that a new kit was released that include this fix. You need to simply right click on the BitDefender icon in the system tray and select 'Update Now'.

You are NOT supposed to remove those 2 entries ! Simply install BitDefender, update it, restart the PC. After the installation and the first update, restart the PC. After restart check AGAIN for updates and install them.

Let me know if the issue persist after you update BitDefender with the latest updates available.

Chimel

Hi Daniel, thanks for the follow-up. I mentioned in my first post that I already solved the issue by removing the 2 registry keys, so I had to reinstall from scratch to check if the issue was fixed indeed, and of course, I did run 'Update Now.'

I noticed that the version engine has been updated automatically overnight to a later revision:

- Virus signature: 7031361

- Engine version: 7.36870

So I probably did not get the fixed update yesterday, even though it was several hours after your post.

I tried again with the following steps:

- Uninstall using the 2011 uninstall tool

- Reboot

- Install the latest BDA 2011 setup executable with the Easy Setup default option

- Reboot

- Virus signature: 7031361

- Engine version: 7.36870

- Run 'Update Now' to install the latest update

1) Weirdly enough, it did find and downloaded one. I thought BDA was self-updating during Setup already?!?

That's what it says during the last setup step.

- Reboot

- Virus signature: 7031361

- Engine version: 7.36870

2) Again, weirdly enough, both numbers are strictly identical to what they were before installing the update, what's wrong?

One of these numbers should be incremented if an update really occurred, or there's no way to tell the difference.

This time, the toolbar extension is present and enabled, so that's a good start.

3) However there is no Uninstall button as for all other extensions, only a Disable button, so it looks only partially compatible.

This thread is specifically about removing the extension, not just disabling it.

The "Show the antiphishing toolbar in Firefox" checkbox works great dynamically, no need to restart Firefox, that's cool.

4) The "Antiphishing is enabled for Firefox" checkbox does not disable the extension when you unselect it, it's not clear what it does.

Are disabling the extension and disabling antiphishing the same thing, can antiphishing be enabled with the extension removed or disabled?

The checkbox does not re-enable the extension if it was disabled manually in Firefox either, even after restarting Firefox.

So it looks like users are still stuck with having to delete manually the 2 registry key, or am I missing something?

Why am I "NOT supposed to remove those 2 entries?" ^-^

I suppose there is a reason why the "Remove" button is not present, but I'd expect the extension to be deleted if antiphishing is disabled.

5) By the way, I hate that the virus signature and version engine can't be copied from the BDA user interface, it would be great to make it selectable so they can be pasted into such messages. They are rather complex and difficult to type manually. Same for the license key, I'd love to right-click Paste in the Registration screen instead of pressing CTRL+V. It's the little things that count... And they cost nothing to implement. ^-^

hjstaruk

Hello,

The update to fix this issue was released few minutes ago. The update will be available in few hours via the Automatic Update Module within BitDefender.

Please confirm that the issue is resolved after installing the product update and restart the PC.

Regards,

BD Antiphishing Toolbar 2.0 installed itself when I started Firefox 4.0 today, March 30, around 8:30 PM EST. Firefox slowed to a crawl - 30 to 45 seconds between mouse action (click link, click menu item, spin scroll wheel, etc.) and response. Task Manager showed Firefox as "not responding" during the delay. When I uninstalled Antiphishing Toolbar 2.0 Firefox went back to normal.

Chimel

When I uninstalled Antiphishing Toolbar 2.0 Firefox went back to normal.

Uninstalled or disabled? I have mine disabled, pending an answer from Danny, but Firefox runs as usual.

I usually try to reboot when I encounter such bizarre behavior, half of the time it fixes it.

Gee, man, don't use your email as alias, or you'll be spammed in no time... ^-^

Unknown

Hello,

Chimel: 1. When you install BitDefender, after the process is complete you are asked to update. Keep in mind that you may need to update a second time, depending on what installation kit you used. I always recommend the users to check for updates until they see the message: No updates available.

2. There is a way to check and see if the update was performed. Click on the 'View Logs' button on the bottom right corner of the BitDefender Security Center then, in the new window, go to Updates. Post a screenshot of that tab.

3 and 4. Removing the Antiphishing extensions should be done only when you wish to remove the Antiphishing feature completely, not when you wish to disable the module. If you choose 'Disable' from the Antiphishing Toolbar button in Firefox, then the associated box in BitDefender -> Antivirus -> Shield -> 'Antiphishing is enable for Mozilla Firefox' will automatically disable also.

-

Can Antiphishing be enabled with the extension removed or disabled ?

No, it can not;

-

Are disabling the extension and disabling Antiphishing the same thing ?

No. When you remove the extension, the Antiphishing module can't be re-enabled. The workaround you followed was to completely remove Antiphishing module for Firefox, not to disable it. I'm OK with that however, the workaround is good for uninstalling the Firefox Antiphishing.

-

However there is no Uninstall button as for all other extensions, only a Disable button, so it looks only partially compatible.

I see no compatibility connection between an uninstall button for Antiphishing and disabling the module. Are you asking to be able to uninstall the module completely ?

-

So it looks like users are still stuck with having to delete manually the 2 registry key, or am I missing something?

Yes you are missing the point You are not supposed to remove those two registry entries ! There are other ways of disabling the feature. No, the users are not stuck as the update was released. If someone wishes to disable the Antiphishing, they can simply do that from within BitDefender Security Center -> Antivirus.

-

I suppose there is a reason why the "Remove" button is not present but I'd expect the extension to be deleted if Antiphishing is disabled.

This is not the way BitDefender Antiphishing module works, when you disable the Antiphishing, the extensions are NOT supposed to be removed, Firefox will simply not load them into memory. Furthermore, you can not uninstall Antiphishing just for a single Internet browser so an uninstall button can only remove Antiphishing for all installed browsers along with the protection on the instant messengers software (i.e. Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live).

Regarding the 5th point, I do believe that it's a very good idea therefore I have escalated it to the respectful department. Gary also suggested this some time ago and we took it into consideration for the future product builds / product versions.

Harry: Indeed, as Chimel pointed out, it is not a good idea to have your Forum username the same as your email address. If you wish, I can modify it. Send me a PM with three (3) versions of the new username and I will do the changes then confirm via email. Regarding the issue you encounter with Firefox slowdown, have you removed the 2 Windows Registry Chimel mentioned above ? Please reproduce the steps you took to uninstall Antiphishing Toolbar. Also tell us what BitDefender product are you using, what Operating System and what PC architecture (32-bits/64-bits).

Best regards,

Chimel

Thanks, Daniel.

Yes I see tons of "update was performed successfully" messages in the log, but I was hoping for more visibility in the Update pane, either in the engine version number or some separate incremental update revision number. I think it would help communicate better, you can then say that the fix is present in update #nnn and later, instead of the guess work that caused me to check the fix twice. My 2 eurocents... ^-^

By partially incompatible I mean that every single Firefox extension also has a Remove button, for when users want to disable stuff forever.

Since antiphishing does not work without the extension, I see no point in disabling without removing it, when it's just a registry key to set.

Sure, enabling/disabling this way would require a Firefox restart, but that's no big deal.

I'd rather have a single checkbox to install/enable/show the extension/toolbar, and leave Show/Hide to Firefox, instead of duplicating it.

But now that the extension is compatible, I probably don't need to fully remove it to debug Firefox, I may even leave it enabled! ^-^

I use BitDefender Antivirus Pro 2011 so I don't have this 'Shield' screen, but the 'Antiphishing is enabled|disabled for Mozilla Firefox' checkbox definitely does not enable or disable the extension in BDA Pro like the 'Show the antiphishing toolbar in Firefox|The BitDefender antiphishing toolbar has been hidden' checkbox does. I tried several times, even restarting Firefox. You may want to check that out.

Unknown

Hi,

First it's impossible not to have the Shield tab The tab in question is basically the first and main tab under Antivirus, having BitDefender in Expert View.

Second, I would like to better understand your point of view and also troubleshoot the apparent issue you seem to encounter therefore I created a ticket on your behalf and sent instructions via email on how to further investigate the Antiphishing issue.

Ticket ID: 201104031003286.

Best regards,

Chimel

Haha, sorry, I misread, I thought for no reason the Shield thing would be one of the left panes. I have of course a Shield tab in the Antivirus pane.

On that ticked ID now...

Unknown

Hello,

I analyzed the logs you provided me with and sent you a reply in response to the ticket you have open with me (ID: 201104031003286). I understand that you schedule a scan however the task do not start. Please follow the recommended steps and let me know if the issue still persist.

If the scheduled scan task still do not start when set, please send me a reply via email and attach the following files along with the info about the scheduled task that won't run:

- scheduler_vsserv.xml from: C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2011\

- ondemandal.xml from: C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2011

Looking forward to your answer!

Kind regards,