Alexa Sparky Toolbar Cripples Firefox
Installing the great new Alexa Toolbar (Sparky) for Firefox proved to be a great big hassle for me.
Trying Something New
Several days ago I decided to try the Sparky toolbar for Firefox. I downloaded and installed it. I restarted Firefox to use all the great features of the newest Alexa toolbar. There was just one little problem, Firefox didn’t open. It was the toolbar. Everything else was working fine before the install.
Searching for Answers
I did a quick search to see if anyone else had the same issues. I discovered Firefox 2.0.0.6 isn’t compatible with Sparky. Before I found a solution I learned that starting Firefox in Safe Mode didn’t work either. I tried uninstalling & installing Firefox, same thing happened. I searched and searched for a solution and found only lists of Alexa toolbar files to remove. These lists were all in spyware removal forums (The Alexa toolbar is considered malware by many spyware removal programs because of the information types it collects and because of it’s reputation for being difficult to completely remove).
Alexa Help Dumbfounded
I checked the Alexa faq’s, I found nothing about the toolbar causing trouble. I even contacted live support to see if they had a fix or removal tool. They were just as perplexed as I was that Firefox no longer opened.
Since no help was found with Alexa, I checked Mozilla support documents. There was nothing there about the Alexa toolbar. I was starting to get a little worried I might never be able to use Firefox again. I was stuck with Opera, Internet Explorer 7, and Safari for Windows. Firefox really is a much better browser.
If It Smells Like Spyware
Since the Alexa toolbar is considered spyware by most anti-spyware programs I decided to remove it with Spybot Search & Destroy. It actually worked!
Alexa Sparky Toolbar Removal Instructions
- Uninstall Firefox
- Run a scan with Spybot Search & Destroy. Select all Alexa toolbar components that show up in the scan then click Fix Selected Problems.
- Once you’ve completed the removal with Spybot S&D restart your computer.
- Install Firefox
- Start Firefox in Safe Mode, no addons.
- Uninstall the Alexa Sparky toolbar from the Addons menu.
- Restart Firefox. Your browser should be restored to it’s pre-sparky state, all addons and extensions in place.
If this helped you, let me know. Comments will remain open.
Update: I contacted Alexa for an update on this issue. I’ll let you know what I find out. Thanks to all of you for posting comments.
I also installed sparky recently , although I didn’t had your problem there was long delay for some sites.Especially privates sites protected by an intranet. Maybe sparky should add an option to skip some sites.
Thanks a lot man I had the same problem. Really thank you.
I ended up uninstalling the tool bar because of this issue. If the pages weren’t so slow to load I would of liked it.
You guys are welcome, I’m glad I could help.
In case Spybot does not detect anything relating to Alexa or Sparky it is probably sufficient to search on your hard disk for a folder “toolbar@alexa.com” (somewhere under “Documents and Settings etc.etc. “Mozilla” etc.).
Remove this folder and re-install Firefox. In my case this helped.
@Bernhard - Thanks for the tip
Thank´s! I just installed sparky and now I cant open up firefox. Annoying! Gonna try spybot removal right away!
It didn’t work… I still can’t open firefox… :(
@bee I’m sorry to hear that. I will email you to follow up soon. Alexa really should clean up the firefox toolbar!
I’m glad I found this article. I was debating on whether or not to install this plugin, but after reading this, it’s not worth the risk/hassle. Thanks for the heads up.
@Don You are most welcome! I’m glad I could help.