Every now and then, you might open up your Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome browser and discover that you suddenly have less space on your screen. What’s the most likely culprit? A freshly installed toolbar that you never intended to put on your computer.
Take a look at the top of your browser window and you’ll probably see an extra line or two of new icons you haven’t noticed before — that’s a toolbar that was a piggyback program which installed itself with the last update from Java or Flash or whatever other legitimate program you updated. Unfortunately, if you’re not extra careful as you install these updates, unwanted extras sneak onto your machine.
You could easily just click the “View” menu and then find “Toolbars” and uncheck whatever toolbar you don’t want to show. However, it might come back as soon as you launch the browser again. If it stays inactive indefinitely, you could just forget about it. However, if you want to completely remove it, you must go into your Control Panel and uninstall the program. Every operating system in a little different, but basically look for either Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features in the Control Panel; then wait for the list to show all the programs on your computer and choose the name of the program you wish to uninstall. Hitting “Uninstall” and then “Yes” when it asks if you’re sure will remove the toolbar. Sometimes you need to reboot after uninstalling to get rid of any temp files that may be loaded from the last boot up.
Be extra vigilant the next time you update a program on your computer and be sure to uncheck any unwanted programs and/or toolbars that are lurking in the background of your update!