MSN Annoyance

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by Uguel707, Apr 1, 2009.

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  1. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    Hi! Well, I have Mozilla Firefox as a browser and MSN as my starting home page. Here's my problem. When I type a word or sentence in the Google Search Engine, my MSN home page will take over and seize anything that I type so that the words will appear in the MSN Research bar only. What shall I do to avoid this? Thanx!
     
    Uguel707, Apr 1, 2009
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  2. JRViejo

    JRViejo Super Moderator

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    Uquel707, type about:config in the location bar and check the keyword.URL preference. The default is normally set to google.com, but in your case, msn.com could show there.
     
    JRViejo, Apr 1, 2009
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  3. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    Thanx. By configuration bar you mean the URL bar, right? I did and it gave me an address that ends with Google. Notice that it does it sporadically, not all the time...If I look at my main Menu bar, I have the regular long bar address and also the little bar on the side sets to Google as a default search engine. And this is the one I usually type into to get any info I want from Google but MSN would take over many times a day.
     
    Uguel707, Apr 1, 2009
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  4. JRViejo

    JRViejo Super Moderator

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    OK, I know what you mean now. That search engine bar is probably showing a G and an arrow next to it, click on the arrow and see if MSN is listed there, if so remove it via Manage Search Engines and try it again.

    The other thing I can think of is: look at Bookmarks > Quick Searches. If MSN is listed there, use Organize Bookmarks to get rid of it.
     
    JRViejo, Apr 1, 2009
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  5. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    Yes, that's exactly the one. Hmm....I do not see MSN listed in it though, I got Yahoo, Amazon, Answers.com, Creative common and the closer ones that could be related to MSN are Live Search and Kiwee Live Search.


    "...The other thing I can think of is: look at Bookmarks > Quick Searches. If MSN is listed there, use Organize Bookmarks to get rid of it."


    Strange, I do not see "Quick searches" ?
     
    Uguel707, Apr 1, 2009
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  6. JRViejo

    JRViejo Super Moderator

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    Yes, Live search is what MSN calls it now. Get rid of it and if you don't use Kiwee, you might as well do it as well.

    I'll try to find why you can't see Quick Searches and get back to you on that one.
     
    JRViejo, Apr 1, 2009
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  7. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    I think you just pointed out the culprit. I went back to my MSN homepage and here it is, I can see the same little Live Search icon next to the MSN middle bar on the MSN page (not the 2 bars we talked previously). So yes, I will disable it and see how things will go....thank you for your help JRViejo I really appreciate this.:)
     
    Uguel707, Apr 1, 2009
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  8. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    .......
    I'll try to find why you can't see Quick Searches and get back to you on that one.[/QUOTE]

    I got version 3.0.8 of Mozilla Firefox is that what you have too?
     
    Uguel707, Apr 1, 2009
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  9. JRViejo

    JRViejo Super Moderator

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    Yes, I have the same version as you. You are welcome! Keep us posted.

    In the meantime, I found this: Using keyword searches and I have the first 4 Bookmark names in my Quick Search as seen under Default searches section. I don't know why your browser does not have it. I'll keep looking and post back.
     
    JRViejo, Apr 1, 2009
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  10. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    I will come back probably tomorrow and tell if it did solved the problem. Thanx again!:)
     
    Uguel707, Apr 1, 2009
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  11. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    Off topic:

    Somehow it reminds me of the option "Block MSN Search hijacking" in the good old IEClean from PSC (Kevin and Nancy). But that's all history because IEClean/NSClean are discontinued and no longer maintained since Comodo took over PSC.
    The option was mentioned in a posting from Paul many years ago:
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=910

    /end off topic/
     
    FanJ, Apr 1, 2009
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  12. JRViejo

    JRViejo Super Moderator

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    Uguel707, I must have tweaked the Bookmarks to create an individual Quick Searches menu item in the main panel, because if you see this Smart Bookmarks folders page (scroll to the middle, in the Example section, Item 3), I noticed that Quick Searches is inside the Bookmarks Menu folder. See if it's there in your browser and if it has MSN/Live in it.
     
    JRViejo, Apr 1, 2009
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  13. JRViejo

    JRViejo Super Moderator

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    FanJ, your seemingly Off topic post could be dead on. Because if MSN knows that you have arrived via Firefox, and of course they know that Google is the main search engine flavor of Mozilla, after a certain number of Google searches, MSN could start diverting visitors to their own search features via code. Yes, I understand it's all conjecture on my part but not too implausible to think that it could be made to happen.
     
    JRViejo, Apr 1, 2009
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  14. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    Yes FanJ was understanding my issue correctly. When I visit the MSN homepage there is some script on the page that takes the cursor and puts it into the search form on the page. Here is a screenshot showing this.
     

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    Uguel707, Apr 1, 2009
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  15. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    So even though I was careful and wrote "cypress" in the Google little address bar on the right, it finally ended up in the MSN home page address bar. Interesting, isn't it?
     
    Uguel707, Apr 1, 2009
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  16. JRViejo

    JRViejo Super Moderator

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    Uguel707, I know that the NoScript add-on would block any script, yet, check Tools > Options > Privacy tab and remove the checkmark from Remember what I enter in forms and the search bar to see if it disappears.
     
    JRViejo, Apr 2, 2009
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  17. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    Yep, I just did it and hopefully this will work for me too. Well, Thanks JRViejo for your valuable help, this will save me lots of time in the end and thanks also Fanj for your input too. :)
     
    Uguel707, Apr 2, 2009
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  18. JRViejo

    JRViejo Super Moderator

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    Uguel707, you are welcome! Glad that it's fixed. Take care.
     
    JRViejo, Apr 2, 2009
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  19. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    :thumb:
     
    Uguel707, Apr 2, 2009
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  20. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    Thanks JRViejo for your helping !!
    To be honest: I'm not completely sure whether Uguel's situation is exactly the same as the one that IEClean's option "Block MSN Search hijacking" is aimed at. But I thought that I'd better mention it (even when/if off topic).
    (In case you're interested, I could quote some part of the IEClean Helpfile).

    Hey Uguel,
    I'm glad that it is solved.
    (give my greetings to (well, you know ;))).
     
    FanJ, Apr 2, 2009
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  21. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    (In case you're interested, I could quote some part of the IEClean Helpfile).

    this might be useful to know.

    Hey Uguel,
    I'm glad that it is solved.
    (give my greetings to (well, you know;) )).

    Hi Fanj, long time no see! :)
    well, it tends to come back again but I noticed that if I wait only one second after positioning the cursor in the Google Search window, it won't do it. Little gestures can go along way....I did, and he said Hello to you with his best smile ever :D
     
    Uguel707, Apr 3, 2009
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  22. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    First my apologies for replying so late !

    Below I will quote the Helpfile of IEClean about that "Block MSN Search hijacking".

    But a few sidenotes:
    IEClean has not be maintained for some years and is discontinued.
    IEClean was designed for IE, and Uguel is using Firefox.
    The Helpfile does not describe how it does it. I doubt that it well help much in this case. My original posting was more that it reminded me somehow about that option in IEClean.

     
    FanJ, Apr 10, 2009
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  23. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

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    No fault. Yes, I remember reading a post on IEClean in the past.

    "If you check this box, MSN is disconnected and you will not be sent to Microsoft on a bad URL. In addition, if you use the "Use alternate search site" checkbox on the MAIN screen of IEClean, you will be sent to GOOGLE instead."

    Very clever of them, too bad they do not support it anymore but I wouldn't be too surprise if Google release another add-on that will keep MSN at bay. Sure the easiest way out is to use another homepage but so far it is the most convenient one I've found. Thanx for the addon FanJ :)
     
    Uguel707, May 1, 2009
    #23
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