Annoying 'Download' widget/add-on - how do I get rid of it?
I have mistakenly downloaded a small 'widget' thing which claimed it could help me by downloading videos etc from websites. It is THE most irritating thing I have ever had on my computer; it pops up right in front of every single e-mail I try to type; obscuring buttons I need to use - it's a small bar which says 'Download' on it - but it is always there where there is NOTHING to download; and by contrast, it does NOT appear on sites where I might like to download a clip - e.g. Youtube & BBC iPlayer. So it is useless, but I CANNOT see how to get rid of it. I looked everywhere on my Mac; in 'widgets'; 'library' etc - cannot see it anywhere. Someone suggested it may be something I downloaded into my Firefox browser; but I cannot see it on the 'add-ons' page here either. Does anyone else know this annoying thing & how to uninstall it?
Chosen solution
If it works in Safe mode or with all extensions (Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) disabled then try to find which is causing it by enabling one extension at a time until the problem reappears.
Close and restart Firefox after each change via "File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit")
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try this
Thanks. I've looked already on the normal Firefox 'add-ons' page - cannot see anything there that relates to this thing. I tried the big long list at 'about:config' - but unfortunately I don't know the exact name of this thing, & cannot see anything in that list that looks like 'download widget' (that's the only information I have about it). I don't want to uninstall something important. If it's any I've attached a screenshot showing what it looks like when it pops up (taken when I was trying to ask this same question on the Apple forum..) - maybe someone could at least tell me what it's called...?..!
have you tried firefox in a safe mode
This looks a bit complicated; I will try it, though it seems to be more for finding viruses; problems etc, but unfortunately I downloaded this thing myself!
Suluhisho teule
If it works in Safe mode or with all extensions (Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) disabled then try to find which is causing it by enabling one extension at a time until the problem reappears.
Close and restart Firefox after each change via "File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit")
Thanks - I think I may have found it - an add-on with a totally different name that I thought was connected to something important on my computer. With add-ons disabled the message doesn't seem to come up, so I removed that one completely. But how do I get them back now? I've started Firefox -with add-ons disabled' but can't enable them again now! Thanks
Can you tell which add-on caused the problems?
If you start Firefox normally and do not get the Safe mode start window then the extensions should work again if you have enabled them on the about:addons page (Tools > Add-ons > Extensions).
Thanks - yes - I removed that add-on completely & re-started with the others enabled - so far the annoying 'widget' has not appeared again...! Thank you very much to both of you who assisted!