Free foxit reader and ask.com

I have found that the free foxit pdf reader has an Ask.com toolbar. One can choose not to install it but, more important in my view is searching within a pdf document also redirects to ask.com. I have uninstalled it but isn't is a stupid as well as sneaky thing

 

Hey, join the dispute over at PDF-X Change who also adds ASK to their install. ASK must be busy making offers.

 

uTorrent on and on and on. As long as there is a clear option to opt-out I have no problem with it.
It helps the developers make some money and keep the software free.

 

More food for thought in links below re ask.com. I thought Foxit offered a Yahoo toolbar, but has it been ask for some years?

http://www.epic.org/privacy/ask/default.html


http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/ask-toolbars/

I'll wager that with the advent of the likes of Bing, ask.com feels their place (5th/6th?) in the search league table is likely to decline further,and they are trying to "diversify" to help in their objectives. Could be a/cs inside co. aren't
looking good, and they're getting more "creative".

 

me neither but i declined the toolbar and still the search within the pdf went to ask

 

My tip would be to use Uni extract: http://legroom.net/software/uniextract on installer files. If it works then you can unpack and see exactly what is inside without installing. Sometimes you can get the program running and just delete the bits you don't want.

 

foxit should have a slim version like ccleaner

 

I never had any problems of this kind. I just unzip the executable to a folder and use it. No Ask toolbar whatsoever... Am I missing something here ?

 

For me,the search within PDF,back,or forward either does nothing,or toggles through the search normally.
If you hit the third button,the "magnifying glass",a "Ask"' window appears.

I damn sure declined the toolbar on install.

 

That "magnifying glass" button has no connection with the Ask toolbar. It simply uses your browser to make an Ask.com inquiry about the term you entered in the search editor. Such "facility" doesn't look useful to me, so I don't use it at all.

 

I have been using Foxit as my default PDF reader for just over a year and now. I disabled the ASK toolbar in the browser after the initial install because Secunia kept flagging it as insecure.

I got an alert from Windows that there was a problem with Foxit & that it was not working properly (the solution was to uninstall/re-install). I uninstalled 3.1, downloaded 3.2, and selected a non-custom install. Unfortunately I also got that pesky ASK search bar, but I disabled it from my browser as soon as the browser reloaded.

I used Foxit3.2 a couple of times after the install and then shutdown my PC. At reboot the next day I got the same W7 alert (uninstall/reinstall)!!! Well I checked with CCleaner to see if there were any registry errors left over from the uninstall of Foxit, but there were none. Not sure if the disabling of the ASK toolbar is the problem or not, but I am getting suspicious.

Is it possible that ASK must be enabled for Foxit to work properly?

 

I think portable version is free of ask toolbar.