Text-Enhance plugin, can't get rid of it and is not in my plug-in's or extensions list. I've tried everything that I could find online to fix it. Nothing worked
I have a plug-in or extension called text enhance which underlines random words on any webpage with a popup link. It is all spam and very annoying. I have tried other methods in getting rid of this but none have worked as most of them require me to remove the plug-in, which is not in my list. I cannot figure out how to get rid of this and have no idea how it got on my browser in the first place!
All Replies (10)
The problem is that Text Enhance appears to be incorporated into other add-ons with a wide variety of names.
This thread identifies a variety of those add-ons: How do I disable the "Text Enhance" affiliate platform that is present on all my web surfing | Firefox Support Forum | Firefox Help.
That thread also links to this article, which has a long list of things to look for: http://botcrawl.com/how-to-remove-text-enhance/ I haven't studied or tested that page, so I don't know whether any instructions there are correct.
If nothing jumps out at you, try copying/pasting your list of Extensions from Help > Troubleshooting Information for forum volunteers to examine.
I don't think this malware is now even requiring a plugin to piggyback in on.
I only have four plugins on Mozilla and they are all highly reputable.
There is no trace of anything untoward in my list of programs as I know everything I install and something unusual would stick out like a sore thumb.
This rough extension was a problem a few years back and I got rid of it by burning it from the registry and deleting its files manually.
It has now returned for me in conjunction with a malware attack I have suffered on a couple of my sites.
This is nothing short of a malware attack and it is a dangerous program that needs to be either manually removed or removed with the use of anti malware software.
I've been trying various solutions to this problem for three days now and none seem to work until I disabled Shockwave Flash 11.3. I'm surprised that this plugin would carry with it such a pernicious virus. I just did this fix so I don't know how effective it will be longer term or what it will mean for my web surfing without the plugin, but I'd rather forgo Shockwave if that means I won't have the popups. Also, as someone else posted somewhere around here (I've been through just about everything on the net dealing with text enhancements) I'm really worried about these things popping up on my web sites with folks who's browser is similarly infected. Lastly, I think Mozella needs to do something about this, I haven't had the problem on IE, Opera or Chrome.
Hi lfldow, TextEnhance is not part of Flash, but it might depend on Flash in some manner, so disabling Flash may prevent it from working. It's only a temporary workaround because it's hard to use the web without Flash.
We should try to uncover the pattern of which extensions are doing this. Could you copy and paste a list of your Extensions into a reply? You can copy and paste from this page:
Help > Troubleshooting Information
(Extensions is the next heading after Application Basics, and the table that follows is the one I'm interested in. I realize the layout will be ugly, don't worry about that.)
I'll have to leave it to you to work out the formatting, but I'm attaching a screen shot which will be easier to work with.
Louis [Pasted extensions follow:] Extensions
Name
Version
Enabled
ID
Norton Vulnerability Protection11.1.0.73 - 1true{BBDA0591-3099-440a-AA10-41764D9DB4DB}PrivacySuite0.747trueabine@abine.comVideoFileDownload - Download YouTube Videos1.5trueplugin@videofiledownload.comNorton Toolbar2012.5.5.11false{2D3F3651-74B9-4795-BDEC-6DA2F431CB62}
Remove VideoFileDownload and find a downloader that doesn't contain TextEnhance.
i'm going to download now to try and get rid of it
Modified by O_O
Hi goukix,
i'm going to download now to try and get rid of it
What are you downloading?? I think it's mostly a matter of manual cleanup and you shouldn't have to download anything.
Hi jscher2000
What are you downloading?? I think it's mostly a matter of manual cleanup and you shouldn't have to download anything.
i don't have TextEnhance so i was going to download VideoFileDownload so i would have TextEnhance on my system so i could try and find out how to manually remove it.
i installed VideoFileDownload but i didn't see any plugin that said Text-Enhance and i didn't see any underlined words on any site so i'm not sure if i had TextEnhance on my system after installing VideoFileDownload.
but here's what VideoFileDownload installed on my system if anyone wants to know:
I have Windows XP SP3 & Firefox 3.6.16
================================================
In Registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\bho_project.bho_object
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\bho_project.bho_object\CLSID\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\bho_project.bho_object \CurVer\bho_project.bho_object.1
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\bho_project.bho_object.1
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\bho_project.bho_object.1\CLSID\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}\InprocServer32
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}\InprocServer32\C:\Program Files\OApps\bho_project.dll
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}\InprocServer32\ThreadingModel
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}\Programmable
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}\TypeLib\{200C5130-E2A9-42A8-8116-49E58CE01D9D}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Low Rights\ElevationPolicy\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Low Rights\ElevationPolicy\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}\Default
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Low Rights\ElevationPolicy\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}\AppName
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Low Rights\ElevationPolicy\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}\AppPath
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Low Rights\ElevationPolicy\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}\Policy
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\PreApproved\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\3\1609
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Ext\IgnoreFrameApprovalCheck
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\vfd-tri
HKEY_USERS\*numbers here are different on every computer*\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\PreApproved\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}
HKEY_USERS\*numbers here are different on every computer*\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{3B002D6C-B678-4EC0-B2E0-1F7F36F065E8}
HKEY_USERS\*numbers here are different on every computer*\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\3\1609
================================================
Files VideoFileDownload Installed:
C:\Program Files\OApps\VideoFileDownload.exe
C:\Program Files\OApps\bho_project.dll
C:\Program Files\OApps\conf.ini
C:\Program Files\OApps\config.ini
C:\Program Files\OApps\vfd-tri_uninstall.exe
================================================
After hunting around for two weeks in search of a fix I found this thread with instruction to remove VideoFileDownload which I did and Text Enhance is now gone so Thank You, what gives people the right to install this stuff on our machine without permission? that has to be wrong and illegal surely.