I’m going to be writing today about browser tool bars. Surfing
the net can be fun and with time you realize some pages keep asking you to sign
up for services, install a software and toolbar in your browser to “enhance”
your surfing on your browser asking you to install a toolbar or . Toolbars are
of various types and the most popular of them are the search toolbars e.g
Yahoo, AIM, Flickr, Alexa, Google, AOL(America Online), Limewire, Weather
Channel, Media Monkey, MSN, Community, Radio.com, Cool Web search, My Web Search,Bing,
Weatherbug, Web Crawler, RetailMeNot toolbars.
The list of browser toolbar is
actually endless with many more toolbars coming every day! Sometimes the
toolbars are so much that they cover over 60% of your browser window!
According to Wikipedia, a browser toolbar
is a toolbar that resides within the browser’s window. Every major web browser
has support for browser toolbars and this is usually for development purposes. Most toolbars constitute a nuisance to
you, your browser and your browsing experience so you need to get rid of all
the tool bars you do not use constantly. Some of the reasons you should
consider removing browser toolbars include:
- They steal your internet bandwidth and personal privacy. While you
are online trying to do something serious and without your permission, these
toolbars keep themselves busy by uploading your information to third party
websites (usually for marketing interest). This also reduces your computer’s
performance.
- Like I mentioned earler, they occupy a valuable portion of your
browser window, making your browsing experience worse instead of better! Every
toolbar you install leaves you less space to view your websites and pages by
pushing your viewable screen further down a little.
- If you remember vivdly, you actually did not want these toolbars
installed on your browser. You were surfing and got a request to install,
instead of struggling with the request and frequent pop-ups, you decided to
install the toolbar and here you are; battling with your viewable screen.
That’s to say, you never intentionally choose to install the toolbar, they just
came out of the blues; or were installed while you were installing another
software.
- They give you unnecessary search windows and most of their results
are more after their interest than yours. I called these search windows
unnecessary because most browsers already provide quick access searc windows.
What’s the need of a second, third, fourth or fifth search window (provided by
these tool bars)? It is absolutely unnecessary!
- They also run some kind of operations that somehow steer you to web
pages/sites that toolbar authors want instead of the pages you request. At
other times they show results that are not related to the requests you
submitted! This operation is called stealth operation!
- Worse of all, the toolbar might be malicious. Some bad guys use them as virus conduits! Sending and receiving information about you and information you don’t need .simply put, they are security holes in your internet connection!
Now that you’ve seen reasons why you should
uninstall that tool bar, I am going to show you three ways to remove these toolbars.
- Uninstalling from Browsers
These option involves uninstalling tool bar and all the associated extensions and add-ons from your browser. This process is pretty lengthy and I’v explained how to uninstall a toolbar using Delta Search toolbar as an example. - Uninstalling with Control Panel.
This is the best and most sure method of uninstalling toolbars. Just follow these steps and you’re all good!- Click on” Start” button.
- Go to “Computer”, in the right panel of the Start menu.
- Next, click on “uninstall or change a program.
- A list of programs comes up. Simply scroll to the toolbars you want to uninstall.
- Left click on the program o highlight it.
- Click the “remove” button at the top to uninstall.
- Using Toolbar Cleaner
Toolbar cleaner is a small easy to use freeware app that helps you control your toolbars and remove unnecessary browser toolbars. It’s best if you don’t want to have time for the steps 1 and 2 above. All you have to do is install the app. During installation you have to be careful. Watch out for “Anti-Phishing Domain Advisor”. Don’t install this.it will also try to change your browsers’ homepage. Simply bypass them by unchecking these options. Click here to see how to use toolbar cleaner. Download Toolbar cleaner here.
Still don't get it? Drop your questions in the comment box below and I'll be happy to reply you ASAP!
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