What is known about BigGameCountdown Toolbar?
If BigGameCountdown Toolbar has ended up on your browser, you have probably been seduced by an opportunity to watch basketball online. Although it is a legitimate program and it is not malicious, security experts advise not to keep such program on a computer. We have investigated how this program works, and we have found out that it advertises third-party websites, which, in some cases, can be untrustworthy. So even though we cannot say that all the web pages promoted via BigGameCountdown Toolbar are unreliable, some of them might be unsafe. That is why we advise staying away from this program.
When you install this toolbar on your computer, it may change your default homepage to home.tb.ask.com and the default search engine to search.tb.ask.com. While this homepage might seem convenient enough to keep as it features all sorts of useful links to popular websites and social networks, we would advise you to think twice and switch back to a more reliable search engine. When you start browsing, you should notice that some of the links are provided by sponsors. This is a quote from BigGameCountdown’s Terms of Use:
MS Products may provide access to search results or other links to Third Party Partner websites or resources.[…]
MS Products are exposed to various security issues, and should be regarded as unsecure.
We would strongly recommend you to avoid visiting these websites. There is no way of knowing that these third party websites you will be redirected to will be safe to use and will not expose your computer to some harmful content. What is more, BigGameCountdown browser add-on might record information about the websites you visit and your search queries. The developers of this program admit that:
We may collect information from you that may identify you, such as your name, address, email address, and telephone number and anonymous Information, such as the number of your page views, link clicks, and login times.
To bypass the risk of exposing your system to untrustworthy content, you should avoid the installation of such program. If it has already placed its files on your computer, you have the option to remove it manually. We have provided BigGameCountdown Toolbar removal instructions on page 2.
How did I install BigGameCountdown Toolbar on my computer?
While it is technically possible to go the BigGameCountdown’s website and download this toolbar by yourself, it is very unlikely that someone would do that on purpose. Therefore, the most believable scenario involves a user downloading some bundled software.
The MS Products may […] be integrated into, bundled, or be provided in connection with third-party services, feeds, and/or content.
Bundling is a legitimate software distribution technique. How does it work you may ask? Let’s say you decide to download some free software and instead of downloading it from the official site, you wander off to some website distributing free software and shareware, or you use some sort of download manager or installer that distributes bundled software. When users start installing a program, they tend to skip ‘Custom’ and ‘Advanced’ options, and this is where they make a mistake because these options usually contain all information about programs that are suggested to install together with your selected program. Therefore, you should not skip any steps in the installation process and make a research on the ‘recommended programs’ before installing them.
Recently, the developer of this program contacted us asking us to remove this post from 2-spyware.com website. We believe that we shouldn’t do that as long as programs that we offer for the removal of BigGameCountdown Toolbar can detect it and help users to remove it from the system. As it is mentioned under each of download buttons, we ARE affiliated with these anti-malware programs, and while some of them are free, others can remove a virus only after purchasing them. These mentions fully fulfill each of the requirements of FTC.
Nevertheless, we have recently decided to make a revision of this and other posts that are related to this developer. We claim that all of them are described properly.
How to remove this application from my computer?
In order to remove BigGameCountdown, follow the steps below:
- Uninstall programs that are related to BigGameCountdown Toolbar from your computer:
1. Click Start → Control Panel → Uninstall a Program.
2. When in the Add/Remove Programs/Uninstall a Program, look for BigGameCountdown Toolbar and other programs that are unknown to you.
3. Click ‘Uninstall’ and then OK to save the changes.
- Reset your web browser:
Google Chrome:
1. Open Google Chrome, click on the menu icon (top right corner) and select ‘Tools’ -> ‘Extensions’.
2. Here, select unfamiliar plugins (BigGameCountdown, MyWay, MyWebSearch, etc.) and select trash icon to delete these entries.
3. In order to change your homepage, click on menu icon, choose ‘Settings’ -> ‘On startup’ section -> ‘set pages’.
4. Here, eliminate myway.com by clicking on the “X” and enter your preferred website.
5. In order to change your default search engine, click on the menu icon -> ‘Settings’ -> ‘Search’ section.
6. Here, click ‘Manage Search Engines…’ and add your preferred domain name.
Uninstall from Windows
Uninstall from Windows 10/8:
- Type Control Panel into the Windows search box and open the result.
- Under Programs, select Uninstall a program.
Uninstall from Windows 7/XP:
- Click on Windows Start > Control Panel (Windows XP users should click on Add/Remove Programs).
- In Control Panel, select Programs > Uninstall a program.
Remove the unwanted program:
- In the Programs and Features window, look for any recently installed suspicious entries, select them, and click Uninstall.
- If User Account Control appears, click Yes to confirm, then complete the removal.
Delete from macOS
Remove the unwanted application:
- From the menu bar, select Go > Applications.
- In the Applications folder, look for any suspicious entries, then drag them to Trash (or right-click and pick Move to Trash).
Delete leftover files and folders:
- Select Go > Go to Folder.
- Enter /Library/Application Support and remove any suspicious folders related to the unwanted program.
- Repeat the same check in the /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons folders, deleting any suspicious entries.
- Finally, empty the Trash to permanently remove the leftovers.
Remove from Microsoft Edge
Delete unwanted extensions from MS Edge:
- Select Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and pick Extensions.
- From the list, pick the extension and click on the Gear icon.
- Click Remove.
Clear cookies and other browser data:
- Click on the Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and select Settings > Privacy, search, and services..
- Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
- Select Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files. (apart from passwords, although you might want to include Media licenses as well, if applicable) and click on Clear.
Restore new tab and homepage settings:
- Click the menu icon and choose Settings.
- Then find On startup section.
- Click Remove next to any suspicious startup page.
Reset MS Edge if the above steps did not work:
- Press on Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
- Click on More details arrow at the bottom of the window.
- Select Details tab.
- Now scroll down and locate every entry with Microsoft Edge name in it. Right-click on each of them and select End Task to stop MS Edge from running.
Instructions for Chromium-based Edge
Delete extensions from MS Edge (Chromium):
- Open Edge and click select Settings > Extensions.
- Delete unwanted extensions by clicking Remove.
Clear cache and site data:
- Click on Menu and go to Settings.
- Select Privacy, search and services.
- Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
- Under Time range, pick All time.
- Select Clear now.
Reset Chromium-based MS Edge:
- Click on Menu and select Settings.
- On the left side, pick Reset settings.
- Select Restore settings to their default values.
- Confirm with Reset.
- This will disable extensions and reset startup pages but will not delete bookmarks, saved passwords, or browsing history.
Remove from Mozilla Firefox (FF)
Remove dangerous extensions:
- Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click on the Menu (three horizontal lines at the top-right of the window).
- Select Add-ons.
- In here, select the unwanted extension and click Remove.
Reset the homepage:
- Click three horizontal lines at the top right corner to open the menu.
- Choose Settings.
- Under Home, set your preferred homepage and new tab settings.
Clear cookies and site data:
- Click Menu and pick Settings.
- Go to Privacy & Security section.
- Scroll down to locate Cookies and Site Data.
- Click on Clear Data...
- Select Cookies and Site Data and Temporary cached files and pages, then click Clear.
Reset Mozilla Firefox
If clearing the browser as explained above did not help, reset Mozilla Firefox:
- Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click the Menu.
- Go to Help and then choose Troubleshooting Information.
- Under Give Firefox a tune up section, click on Refresh Firefox...
- Once the pop-up shows up, confirm the action by pressing on Refresh Firefox.
Remove from Google Chrome
Delete malicious extensions from Google Chrome:
- Open Google Chrome, click on the Menu (three vertical dots at the top-right corner) and select More tools > Extensions.
- In the newly opened window, you will see all the installed extensions. Uninstall all suspicious extensions related to the unwanted program by clicking Remove.
Clear cache and web data from Chrome:
- Click on Menu and pick Settings.
- Under Privacy and security, select Clear browsing data.
- Select Browsing history, Cookies and other site data, as well as Cached images and files.
- Click Clear data.
Change your homepage:
- Click menu and choose Settings.
- Look for a suspicious site in the On startup section.
- Click on Open a specific or set of pages and click on three dots to find the Remove option.
Reset Google Chrome:
If the previous methods did not help you, reset Google Chrome to eliminate all the unwanted components:
- Click on Menu and select Settings.
- In the Settings, scroll down and click Advanced.
- Scroll down and locate Reset and clean up section.
- Now click Restore settings to their original defaults.
- Confirm with Reset settings.
Delete from Safari
Remove dangerous extensions:
- Open Safari, click Safari in the menu at the top-left of the screen, and select Preferences.
- Go to the Extensions tab, look for any suspicious entries, and click Uninstall to remove them.
Clear history and website data:
- Click Safari in the menu and pick Clear History.
- Set Clear to all history and confirm with Clear History.
Reset Safari:
- Click Safari in the menu and select Preferences > Advanced.
- Enable Show Develop menu in menu bar.
- From the menu bar, click Develop and select Empty Caches.
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