Technological Klutz would ask for help removing Ask toolbar from XP.
I found out how to do it before and forget what I did. Now it is here again the dear little thing. Help before I reach for Sledgehammer. Thanks

If it isn't in your "Add or Remove Programs" in the Control Panel, there should be an "X" on the far left side of that toolbar.

If it is in the "Add or Remove Programs" section, you can uninstall it from there.

Ta Dave, I will try the cross. It isn't in my Add or remove.

Ask.com actually provides a tool to remove it. Why it's not included when it's installed...well why would they want to do that?

http://help.ask.com/link/portal/30015/30018/Article/1/How-do-I-remove-the-Ask-com-Toolbar

One of the better programs I run is Malware Bytes AntiMalware. That's one of the best.

Also Super Anti Spyware.. but I don't know either of those would remove a tool bar.. unless it was a nefarious toolbar. But they aren't in and of themselves bad though some are.

What might be happening is if you download a new program such as from cnet you'll have options down at the bottom of the box that say Would you like to download the __ toolbar or such-and-such program.. and you have to manually select now or it will automatically download.

As above for everything unless you are using Norton. The 'Ask' search engine is used by Norton for their Safe Search function:

http://us.norton.com/safe-search/promo

If it is this that is being seen, it wouldn't be something that can be uninstalled or removed. However, it can be disabled as described here:

http://us.norton.com/safe-search/promo#6 (same page as linked to above but further down).

Norton say this is not the same as using the entire Ask package. They are only using Ask's search results and then examining sites for malware before declaring links to them safe to click.

Thanks all, something worked and it went/. I don't know what!

Yes, I have had Ask pop up suddenly - gets in the way of my preferred search engines. It comes as an 'optional' extra when downloading lots of respected programs. 'optional' meaning you have to notice it when installing the desired program and unclick it, otherwise it will be installed.

I'm using Windows 8.1 and Chrome. I haven't been brave enough to download Windows 10 yet, but apparently we have about another 10 months to decide in order to get it for free. That suits a Libran like me lol

besides those methods mentioned above (which are all good), you can also make sure your search engine of choice is the default by right clicking on the address bar (not the window bar with the tabs) and select the bottom option "Edit Search engines" and delete all the ones you don't want by hi-lighting them and clicking on the "x" in the right corner
It was only way I could finally stop "Bing" from occasionally insinuating itself about a year ago