Tool Bars of Death

Most people either have an internet browser tool bar, or knows someone else that has one. Some people live by them and don't know how to use the internet without them, and the rest of us avoid these things like the plague. These tool bars are in fact a browser add on, that can hit you in many diffrent ways, and slow your access to the internet or worse. What is an add on bar? Well it is a potential tool to make your Internet browsing easier right? Well yes and no.

It can make it easier for you to search a beloved topic on the Internet but at what price? Do you really know whats going on here? An Add-on tool bar is nothing more than a piece of Spy ware.

In fact they also eat up many of your other resources as well through this Add-on, and you probably never even realized it. Internet Pages load slow? Some things don't work? Does it seem like your Internet service and speed has gotten worse? Most likely caused by Add- ons.

What is an Add-on? Here is the Anatomy of your IE (Internet Explorer).

A) Google Search Add-on bar. Added at http://www.google.com/

B) URL Field or the Address Bar, where you manually type in website locations. A website location is basically like a home address for your information - but on the Internet super highway. It is the location of information and data that's stored IN the Internet itself~

C) This is the Norton Security Add-on, an example of Internet security add-ons. They are all generally the same as this one listed here. Except they would have the name of their company on it instead, i.e. AVG or Trend Micro.

D) Tool bar Add-on's even have the ability to add more add-ons to their Add-ons. it gets to be quite the mess eventually and 99% of these never get used.

E) Added Add-on Tools and settings buttons.

F) A top bar search box, very common and the least threat of all the Add-on tools. Also available in various titles and services from many different companies (i.e Google, yahoo, AOL etc, etc).

G) Your Internet Explorer (IE) tools in visual button format. yuck.

Ok so above you see the breakdown of Add-ons and what they look like. But your probably thinking I have some of those things. Whats the big deal? Well, now comes the insider information on these "Innocent helpers" in our web browsing life...

First off, everyone of them is considered a program or program attachment. This falls into a "program eating your system memory resources" category. These things are eating your system memory whether you use them or not, and they run the second your computer is turned on.

Second, they track and record (some more intensely than others) what you are doing, searching, reading and compiles the information of your habits, then uses YOUR Internet speed and connection to send DATA back to the programs creator. Where they COMPILE the data AGAIN, and then turn around and SELL your habits to research groups for alot of money.

Third, they change the way your computer IE browser works, sometimes by changing your Browser settings and defaults that allow you to work freely, other times they change the settings enough to break your IE completely. On Vista this happens commonly. And it is sure to happen to anyone that starts adding more than one, like this example above, they probably have fast Internet but access it slowly as too much junk running on their Browser.

Customers reporting bad Internet connection or intermittent Internet, frozen browsers, downloads that won't work, anything browser related in error "Explorer can't display page" -

Once removing and resetting their IE, the problems go away. Resetting the IE removes all the Add-ons and changes done to the factory settings on your Internet Browser. See instructions from PCSpyder about how to CLEAN your Internet Explorer (IE) of Add-ons here -> CLEAN!

In essence, these Add-On Bars are basically SPY WARE that you have clicked "Yes" and willingly let them onto your computer to eat up your system memory, Processor usage, Internet speed, track your habits and make money at your expense... i.e. Spy ware, but you welcomed it.

In a nut shell, "Just say no to Add-ons " , if a site asks you if you want to add them to your Internet explorer or other browser (i.e. Mozilla, etc) look at it as them saying:

"Can we install a program that runs in the background of your computer, using your memory to track you, and access your Internet to send us your trends? It will only cost you Internet speed and performance.That's okay right? Just click I Accept!"

Go ahead, you can do it.... "Do not Accept..."

Just say "no."

As a final note, I had a lady call me once with the complaint that she had "intermittent" Internet connection. So I asked permission to access her computer from my office and she agreed. When I first connected I was lost- The top 3/4 of her screen were ad on tool bars... I must have counted 20-30 different ones, I was in shock. I was lost in a colored field of this and that's.. colors and flashing stars and lights and the entire screen was quite dazzling...

I asked her... why all the tool bars? She responded, "I don't know I don't use them and I didn't put them there." So in essence these just added themselves when she downloaded or installed certain programs, this is another good thing to look out for.

We began the invasive surgery to remove them all, it was a very colorful browser but hardly functional. I educated her on the law of "Tool Bars." And with in minutes her Internet was running better than it ever had before...

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