Sweetpacks Toolbar had my head screaming this morning! To get an early start on my backlog, i was up at 4.30am only to waste my next 5 hours trying to remove Sweetpacks. It had installed itself illegally the day before. I had downloaded a different program which was accompanied by the Sweetpacks offer which i rejected! It ignored my decision and became a hero amongst Malware.
What it does is take over your search results. In this case, Google.
I may have many sites designed through WordPress but i’m primarily a blogger. I am not an IT geek! I don’t say that with disapproval because there are times like these that i wish i was one…or still lived in the big city when there was one in every suburb.
Nevertheless, i can offer you advice after those painful hours dug through over 200 search results, approximately 50 pages and several programs RESULTING IN NO SOLUTION! Even the incredible Malwarebytes never worked. I want to save you from “borborygmus” which means intestinal rumbling caused by moving gas:)
I am using Firefox as my browser but i’m sure that the principles will apply to Explorer etc.
When cleaning Registry entries, don’t delete every search result that is found as i fear you may cause yourself injury. Use your logic. And if it looks confusing, call someone to use the tools below. But check it out first.
DOWNLOAD
- CCleaner (for free here – you’ll keep this lovely program for ever)
- RegSeeker (for free here – if it offers you third party software, say NO. Another option is Softonic – say NO to their music toolbar offer too…it doesn’t force an install)
- Install both.
FIREFOX
- Tools -> Addons -> Remove Sweet IM
- On your Search Bar (as in the picture below), click the icon and then remove the SweetIM/Sweetpacks option.
- Close your Browser!
REMOVE PROGRAM ENTRIES WITH CClEANER
- Open CCleaner
- Under Cleaner tab, select Cookies -> Run Cleaner
- Under Tools you will see all your programs listed. Click on column for Install Date so you can easily find the latest entries.
- Remove the following (or any that are similar):
- SweetIESetup.exe
- SweetIM Toolb
- SweetPacks To
- SweetIM Technologies Lt
- IM Technologies
- Click on Registry tab -> Scan for Issues -> Fix selected issues.
- Close CCleaner.
REGSEEKER
- Click tab for Find in Registry.
- Search for ‘SweetIM’ and delete the results.
- Close Regseeker.
FINAL THINGS TO DO
Listen to my shameless self-promotion:)
- If you like rock music and interested in our world gone mad, pop over to my diary at www.wickedmike.com. Consider subscribing.
- Thinking of a holiday. Consider my hometown of Knysna, the prettiest town in South Africa. Kid you not! My www.LoveKnysna.com will prove it – click on the top sections. Us tourist towns got hit hardest by The Recession so we need your money:) And we’re damn cheap e.g. R9 of our local currency matches $1. A beer pint costs $1.5 in a bar.
It is uninstalled via the add/remove programs feature in your control panel. No need for all these dramatics.
That was unfortunately the first step down the path of many uninstall, failure attempts.
Awesome man! Thanks your method worked! =)
me too, I used (cc cleaner ), then went to (Microsoft fixit ) and used the ie repair tool, it took no time and its gone. …….simply uninstalling it in programs and features did not remove it from ie 10 although I could disable it.
another note…. if you got to (CNET.COM ) there are alot of totally free programs to download there that are safe and tested. i downloaded CC CLEANER, ( free version ). it takes just a few minutes. you can do alot with it and its easy to understand and it works well. AVG free antivirus is also a great program you can get there as well, totally free , no bull…if you remove sweetpacks from your pc , go to internet explorer options on your computer, it may still show up there , you can disable it but you cant remove it. then go to the official ( MICROSOFT FIXIT ) site, there you can use the diagnostics tool for free to fix ie problems, it removed sweetpacks from the ie 10 on my pc completely and found some other issues as well that were fixed, it only takes a few mintues and really works
Thanks for your good input, Scott. I never knew of Microsoft Fixit so will check it out.
I used to use AVG but it began eating up a lot of resources when scanning so i switched to Avast which has done me well the past 3 years. It’s helluva cool that we have Free version options from both these companies.
I followed your instructions and it appears to be gone, at least it doesn’t show up on start up, but I have run reg seeker again several times and several sweetim entries keep showing up in the registry, even though I keep deleting them.
Still, I am so grateful I found your site. NOTHING else helped at all!!! Thank you!!!!!!!!:)
I’m glad that you’ve at least had the visual interference removed.
it still leaves an executable with the uninstall…
That’s what happened to most of us.
bloody sweetpacks i tried all this no luck and it installed itself on both my computers
The arseholes behind Sweetpacks will undoubtedly find different ways to install but i’m hoping that you won’t be the first failure. Try again.
click on ‘tools’ then click ‘Add-ons” it will open up a page. On the left margin click ‘extentions’
you will find everything in there. Remove that toolbar and any other add-ons that you don’t want.
Good Luck
this is on Mozilla browser
I tried that right in the beginning but it simply reappeared after restarting the computer. Same happened to others.
There was no chance removing this BEAST in IE. You can only deactivate but not remove! Finally regSeeker is running now … can´t believe how many regEntries it still has – AFTER I already deleted it with ccleaner AND double-checked the systemControl!!!
MANY Thanx for your hint with regSeeker!!
andrea (germany)
STOP all that hunting, somebody else has done it…, the easiest way to remove it is to install SPY-BOT (Search&Destroy) freeware….!!!
Excellent & simple Solution, just remember to reboot after cleaning!!
If only it had been that simple…but it wasn’t.
Cheers dude, wouldnt uninstall via add/remove programs or revo uninstaller but your method worked
Awesome! And thank you because of all the thousands of people who’ve visited this page, you are the first to give kudos:)
A…mazing. F&*^@$# SweetIM can F@%#$ off thanks to you. Really appreciate the effort you must have gone through to lay this method out. Thank you.
Thanks, Alex.
Thank you, you wonderful wonderful man. You have just saved me so much time
When called “wonderful” twice i can only respond with pleasure-pleasure:)
“It is uninstalled via the add/remove programs feature in your control panel. No need for all these dramatics”.
Actually it has never appeared in my list though my full scan virus sweep picked the prog sitting on my hard drive. You can disable the toolbar in Firefox but the instructions for Opera do not seem comprehensive enough to apply. Generally speaking if I use FF then I do not get any popups but with Opera after closing it down there is this faintly annoying popup sitting there with ticked fake options that cannot be unticked. Not really sure it could be classified as malware though.
Thank You from Poland ! Yes, we also have a internet here !
Ha ha. Actually, we think about porn when we think of Poland:) I’m in South Africa – tourists look disappointed when they don’t see lions walking through the city – he he.
I uninstalled and still had issues. SweetIM was in the program files but it wouldn’t let you delete it. This article told me where to go in the registry to actually get rid of it.
Thanks!
That’s terrific, Tricia. Nice to help in return i.e. after so many strangers helped me out of computer pickles the past decade.
This Sweet Pack prog finally appeared in my program listing and was successfully removed. It is actually intended to be used with messenger so that you can include marginally amusing/annoying emoticon’s rather than being malware. Though its sudden appearance certainly appears to be something within that genre made worse by the persistent requests/demands to re-enable it until you finally remove it.
Thanks for the info, Tim.
Mike, many thanks, I was tearing my hair out with this sh*t but your instructions have done the job and my computer is now rid of SweetIM.
I totally get you. One day of this crap and i was totally bald:)
OOOOWWWW I LOVE U!♥ Thanks baby, this program is fucking me all time. And u have all the reason! There are NOT pages on internet can show me the answer to this problem. You saved my computer, I appreciate!
Love accepted – he he.
How do I get rid of it using google chrome?
Try following the same instructions.
Thanks for sharing these instructions! You’re right that SweetPacks is a right pain in the arse.
And not many would enjoy an unexpected enema.
You’re a legend – thanks for the tutorial!
THANKS!!
I followed the instructions and removed Sweetpacks, however RegSeeker automatically installed claro-search (even though I told it NO) so I’m back to square one… :/
Are you sure that’s the source? This page has had many comments, 11540 views and 1472 link follows to Regseeker yet this is the first time it’s come up after many successes. I couldn’t google relevant info linking the two.
Thanks you sooo much you saved my ass
Even arses needed saving:)
I F*** HATE HATE SWEETPACKS it made me stay up till 12o’clock in the morning when i had a lot of things 2 do thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
Search engines should find a conscience and block all the bastards who do things like this to us.
CCleaner worked great. Like you, I had already tried malwarebytes. I had also already run spybot search and destroy. After both the Sh!tbox toolbar option was still there. Ran CCleaner, now all gone. My buddy had been telling me to run CCleaner for a couple of months, now I see why.
Thx, dude!
It’s awesome that there are all these wonderful people out there who provide us with these free tools.
I managed to remove it by just doing
Alt+T > Add-ons > Extensions Then find it and click remove and restrt firefox.
Worked for me.
Also I liked this article but i saw this on yahoo answers and gave it a go first
Thanks anyway!!
Happy for you to have had an easier journey. Many of us had a much bitchier version.
I got up to scanning the Registry for issues and the final issue (in a long list of them, haha) was missing startup software…for SweetIM! I don’t think I want to “fix” that! I’ll skip that step and see how the rest goes.
thanks bro
Small world – I was in Knysna for 2 sleep on 28 / 29 September with a group from Brisbane and Sydney area, Australia. Slept at Knysna Hollow Country Estate. Saw Oudtshoorn Ostriches, cango caves, Cango Wildlife Ranch, the Waterfront. etc etc. Impressive.
That starts my day wonderfully:) Love small worlds. And i’m lucky to live in such an astoundingly beautiful area. Also glad that you enjoyed yourself – we need the tourism!
thank you very very much
My pleasure, pleasure:)
Hi
Should I listen to what the sweetpacks bundle uninstaller says on how to unistall each part of sweetpacks?
oh and every time i search for sweetim on regseeker i delete the results and search again and the all come back up – what do i do?
I used SPYBOT to kill Sweetpacks using the Administrator setting [right click on Spybot icon then click - use as administrator] \ but do not let Spybot kill other ‘good’ programs like Microsoft Security Essentials
Thanks WickedMike!
Pleasure.
I think this solution has worked. It has certainly improved things. Just as well as I visited Knysna yesterday on trust. But I’m only along the road in J’Bay
Glad that you came to our lovely town!
I, too had gone down the route of deleting from Registry, Add/Remove progs and also Revo, but your method worked, thank you so much. Vee in Portugal
That’s terrific, Val.
OMG, you’re brilliant! Sweetpacks apparently hitched a ride with Babylon onto my computer, unbeknownst to me, and none of the usual removal methods worked. It was so aggravating, and now it’s GONE! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Babylon is behind so MUCH shit. If there was any integrity to governments, they would stop trying to ban free speech and instead go after criminals like Babylon.
One last step to remove it from FireFox.
Type in about:config in the address bar, search for sweetim and right-click on each result line to get the menu, and reset it.
Thanks, Manckito. Depending on how it installed, some may need that.
auds is asking plz tell me how to get rid of this damn thing thanks
As above.
thanks man,, i have follow your instruction and it really worked… you’re the best dude… thanks again.
Hearing that it worked is always cool. There are a few unlucky sods who got hit with a different version and remain in SweetHell.
Right click on the Google Chrome ‘Omnibar’ and click Edit Search Engines and then delete the Sweetpacks driver……. It actually deletes the F#*^Ker.
If you’re lucky, you’ll have a tame version and that’ll work. Most of us had a bastard of note.
Thanks
Pleasure for sure.
a big thank you for you sir!!this so called SWEET PACKS had turned my web experience SOUR like never before!!! I STRONGLY SUGGEST………DO NOT DOWNLOAD OR INSTALL ANY THING AND EVERYTHING THAT HAS THIS SWEETPACKS BUNDLE HOPPING ALONG WITH IT.THEY DO PROVIDE AN UNINSTALLER BUT THAT IS SIMPLY A TRASH ATTACHMENT MEANT TO LURE YOU TO USE IT…IT NEVER WORKS
Almost always, that is TRUE, sir.
Hi, there,
Thanks to you I found out many people fought my fight with this cursed toolbar;.
Though I tried your suggestions, none worked (or I did not have the patience to let them work, as my computer is very slow).
But I did something easier and more basic that what you suggest, and it worked : I uninstalled Mozzilla Firefox (and kept no bookmarks or passwords in its memory), I downloaded it again and re-installed it : NO MORE BITTER SWEETPACKS§
Hope this helps.
Cheers from France.
Glad that worked for you but it’s likely you will still find it installed in your Program list.
Thank You soooo much!
Yay.
I tried the same trick(as ms.aurelia did).But wickedmike is right.The devil didn’t leave the nest.I could suggest what one of my friends tried.He suffered multiple trauma at the hands of sweetpack,babylon and claro search.He entered the settings window of chrome,changed the options underneath APPEARANCE where you change your HOME BUTTON from sweet,claro or babylon to GOOGLE or anyother favourite search engine.Also,underneath SEARCH option,go to MANAGE SEARCH ENGINE and remove any third party search engine.The corresponding operation was carried out in mozilla and IE.Since then,that devil’s trio hasn’t made an appearance.It took him just 3 minutes to change the settings.I assure everyone,it works.
Thank you sooooo much!! Friggin’ thing just about drove me crazy!!
Drove the world crazy!
Well, thank you very much. I have already spent a long time trying to get rid of this “intruder.” Now, thanks to your great advice, I think I will finally remove it. It’s having poeple like you in the web that makes this world a better place.
Again, thanks a lot!
Such a nice compliment. Thank you!
Win7 users: Run Regseeker as Admin! (right click on exe file)
Thanks for your input.
Hi Mike,
Thanks so much for this blog! I felt helpless and frustrated when i saw sweetpack hopping out from each corner on my computer:)
Unfortunately the “Sweetpack bundle uninstaller” is still showing in my control panel and wouldn’t dissapear! When I start uninstall process sweetpack window pops up saying “we are sorry to see you go blah blah blah…This page will help you to remove easch sweetpack component” – but of course it doesn’t.
Do you have any idea how to get rid of this last one sh%$t scrap?
Best wishes from Poland – we got a lot of snow over last night here:)
PS. I installed ccleaner but skipped the regseeker as it was trying to install some other search bar what i didn’t accept – so then is shut down the installation process:) So i only did the ccleaner and did few more things that users on this blog suggested.
To get rid of the version most of us got, you have to go through the whole process. Third party software is a ballache but there is a difference between those that are upfront about it and give you the option to opt out versus those that force it on you. Even Download.com got caught out as arseholes this year. I’d say simply try again but instead i went looking for option 2. You will now see a Softonic download link above next to Regseeker. They also offer third party software which, when i downloaded Pinball from their site, were upfront about it and allowed me to deselect Claro Toolbar etc. I restarted my computer and don’t see Claro in my Programs, Search Bar or Firefox intentions so i’m happy with Softonic.
You have given me a big help. tks
hello,
it does not work…. CC Cleaner can’t delete the sweetpack bundle uninstaller by the method you described, and RegSeeker can’t delete the “sweet” register keys. He delete them, but the program remains, and in a new search, he find them again.
cheers!
I can only suggest try again…and in the order mentioned. The success rate has been overwhelming. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Sweetpacks hasn’t put our more versions.
Thank you, thank you, thank you it worked perfectly..
Great to hear that!
Same effing problem.
And here’s where it came from – Google’s top ranking page when I googled for Firefox was something in restrospect called EZ download Firefox.
THAT is where the scam is, that’s where you get the malware called Sweetpacks, even if you tick no, and if the people responsible knew how I felt about their lying, thieving, disreputable practises they would wither and die.
Think about it… if it was any good, you’d have heard about it and you’d go looking for it, right? If it has to lie its way onto your computer it is malware, a virus.
Answer: ALWAYS DOWNLOAD FROM MOZILLA.ORG
“Shitpacks” – the perfect name.
Thank you, set me on the right road. Followed your advice, then thought, System Mechanic 5. my old manual uninstaller from years back. Found quite a few more SweetIM la la and took them all out. Left only the one you said in the beginning, at the tool bar to take out with remove. Thanks again. Herb
Terrific.
Thank you very much! Your tactics seems to helped me with removing it succesfully.
(I did got that nasty bastard from freevideoeditor.info – so don’t go there).
Thanks for the advice.
ur just so awesome…THANK YOU!!!
I’ve always wanted to be called “awesome”
I finally got rid of this ugly monster using Ccleaner. Its free to download. After downloading it I Clicked on ‘Tools’ inside this program. I then clicked on a program called ‘Bloson’ and clicked on uninstall. This program was removed which then automatically removed ‘Sweetpacks!’
Hadn’t heard of Bloson before. Thanks for telling us that there’s another danger.
Thank-you sir! Perhaps “Anonymous” should deliver vengeance on Sweetpacks!
If Anonymous took on all my causes, the world would be a better place…and Jena Malone would be coming to dinner because they kindly gave my number to her:)
I fucking LOVE YA! Yeah Fuck Sweetim, please forgive my curses, but those dudes fucking sucks, they stole my search engine in Google Chrome, and I cant delete them like the other. FUCK FUCK FUCK them!
This is the single post that allows swearing:)
SWEET F___k-ALL THAT’S WHAT SWEETIM IS
Thank you ever so much for your tip, it worked for Firefox. I couldn’t find the damned program in my control panel to delete it either.
thank you man, CCcleaner was enough for me in firefox. it was named i think something like “default toolbar” – i recognized it by date.
did i say…. THANK YOU!!!!
SpyBot S&D (although older and less popular these days) is actually very good at removing SweetPacks and I recommend it as the easiest option.
There seems to have been different versions of Sweetpacks. For some, Spybot did not work alone. Glad it worked for you.
OMG Thank You! I installed this crap by accident on my brand new laptop… and your directions saved me a days worth of headache! Worked to a T on the new Windows 8 with Explorer. THANK YOU!
That’s great. Nice to know that it works on Windows 8.
The %&*&*&$$ have hijacked my tools button! I have now been at this for 3 hours.
I was at it way longer before finding a solution. Hope you come right too.
Awesome! Thanks. Great Instructions! It’s gone!!!
Always good to hear!
whoever came up with this sweetpack program deserves to be the victim of some kind of curse where they will spend the rest of their days wallowing in pure social and financial failures as well as every possible STD one can contract!!! I was about to throw my Macbook in the trash out of hours of frustration in trying to remove this garbage.
Gone are those days where Apple was the exception to horrors such as this. With you in wishing STDs on the buggers:)
It worked!! Finally! Thank you from Brazil!
Pleasure from South Africa.
It worked! Fantastic. I was going crazy trying to get rid of it! Thanks for posting this info.
I tried downloading RegSeeker and even though I declined downloading the other apps, it did so anyway. As a result, there were ads popping up and toolbars installing themselves.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! IT WORKS! I spent 3 days frustrated by this monster reappearing no matter what steps I took based on advice from other websites. Finally, I reached out to web support services who were charging me an arm and leg to get rid of this virus. I was afraid that going down that path would multiply my problems. I finally chanced upon your website and gave it a shot as a last resort. I cannot tell you how much relief you have brought me. YOU ARE A BLESSING! BLESSINGS from the USA
Best comment to hear so far. So many have helped me with problems over the years. Glad i could give back.
I Agree with this.
BUt AFTER I did all process it was still happening
I agree geting it out of extentions
I agree that the C Cleaner get the unistall which is good.
as well with the reg thing since finds things that evil virus leaves.
But still after doing process it still there.
I had 3 browser all efected.
So use Internet explorer reset default.
unistall Chrome, and mozzil fox.
And it is gone.
redo the r thing since it still may be there. it is evil
It can be a crazy bugger!
Save yourself some heart ache and just restore your system to an earlier date such as the day before to delete this garbage (and the other stuff that came with it) and then scan with a program like Glarysoft to double check your registry for errors. I couldn’t believe that Firefox allows this to happen. I took the chance to download the hd codecs that it says you are missing and got a mess of unwanted garbage like Sweetpacks. I tried to do a system restore from just before the download and it didn’t work, so I did the day before and got rid of the scourge. This is a reminder that if it doesn’t seem right, then it most likely isn’t. Don’t forget to go into the “tools” and clear your browsing history just in case cookies were stored on your browser.
Thanks for your input, Rob.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! My headache is easing as I type!!
Thanks, got rid of sweetpacks, not sure where i picked it up hope i don’t do that again
From Israel with Sweetpacks… What a nuisance. I tracked them down, the company responsible for this litter bugger is called Perion. They have more such terrible tools and I’m sure they are actively promoting them. After a year or so, most antivirus apps at least flag it as a potentially unwanted >> http://deletemalware.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-remove-start-sweetpacks-and.html
Cheers!
Hi, Israel:) Perion only bought them in Nov 2012. Price tag – $41 million. Very sad that nefarious companies such as SweetIM are rewarded for their bad behaviour!
I don’t know what it came bundled with, but thank you for the absolute clarity that it is Not Good. I have dispatched it via Avast! antivirus.
That’s great, Hilary.
Thanks much for this tutorial and the updates in the comments. Cleaning up a friend’s laptop where it whacked IE10, FF20, and Chrome, simultaneously. What a load of crap. Took Malwarebytes, SuperAntispyware, CCleaner, and manual searching after reading the “about:config” post (and subsequent link to the Malware Removal Instructions site), before I got it all sorted. It showed up as a fake installer – google earth.exe – not the real one from google – GoogleEarthSetup.exe – junk file was the first link at the top of the search page.
Yep, it’s that kind of bastard.
Hey, you are Da Man! Worked Great!
By the way, ignore that first comment, the one by the Beavre. The little squirt never was any good at anything, except being a nuisance to me and Wally.
Another GREAT and free resource that helped me remove these damnable toolbar/search hijacks is SPYBot Search and Destroy. After untold hours of brain-ache on my own, and it removed several of these pesky critters that I could not remove otherwise.
This seemed to have worked! I am SO happy I found you in the search results with all the other bogus ‘how to uninstall by buying my guide’ help. You are awesome!
Glad you found us:)
sadly, it is still coming up in my firefox browser, even though I followed all the instructs twice! I even found some additional entries in regseeker when I searched just for ‘sweet’.
buggers
I’m clear!!! I took Adam’s advice on top of what you gave us. Thank goodness. What a headache! I also went out & posted your url on some of the fake advice. Regards!
Detailed instructions which worked fine for me just this morning are here:
http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-sweetpacks-toolbar/
There is a special spot in hell kept extra warm for the criminal scumbags who create such excrement. They are nothing but human waste themselves. Look up Perion company for example, the slimebags. This piece of garbage is their product and they make $30 million a year with it, by annoying and misleading millions of people. Absolute scum.
cheers mate sweet packs was doing my head in too its now hopefully dead
R.I.Pain
Hi There! Thank you for the post. It did not work for me. I have done everything you recommended, and “sweetpacks” is still here
. The must have done something to make it more difficult to remove since 2012,
I’m sorry to hear that you are one of the few who did not succeed. It is, of course, possible that there are several versions of SweetIM out there.
What I found is that registry”deletes” Sweetpack files,but when I run another “find”, they are back.
Thank you thank you. I tried so many times to delete it from the control panel and it would not let me!! I went through ccleaner and was able to do it with your instructions. I also reset the internet explore options, which not sure that was necessary but I am so happy this stupid thing is off.
Fab to hear that!
Gordon says:
I tried following your instructions here on this web page, “Sweetpacks toolbar – remove it – kill it” but upon attempting to download “CCleaner”, I get some other SW titled ARO 2013, then I Attempt to download “RegSeeker”, I get the same SW (?!) (which also calls itself “ARO 2013″. You stated, for the case of CCleaner, that it was free SW, but This “ARO 2013″ SW, is trying to charge me! Am I being hacked? Is this some sort of Malware? In trying to remove this sweetpacks toolbar, thru Firefox, some of what you describe in your directions is not present! Also, upon doing a “Bing” search (I would much prefer the old Google – another distraction), I try to relocate this web page; also I don’t seem to be able to bookmark this web page. Incidentally, I consider myself at the intermediate skill level in IT,though I worked as a programmer all of my working career, mostly in large main frames. I read some of your responses to posts by people who also tried to remove sweekpacks (aka babylon), I couldn’t agree with you more! All of this mickey mouse you refer to has gotten way open of hand. Thanks (incidentally I backed up my int HD the day before using Windows 7 backup; tried to do a “full system image recovery” but the SW doesn’t recognize the System image on my int HD, but this of couse is a “personal problem” !!
You would not have downloaded the same ‘hijacker’ from 2 different sites. Since it’s a registry cleaner, it’s highly unlikely that it would’ve been allowed to accompany CCCleaner and RegSeeker. Either you’re advertizing ‘ARO 2013′ or you got it elsewhere.