How To Uninstall Toolbars

Toolbars are usually located at the top of any Windows-based application, and they comprise buttons that enable you to perform various actions within your applications. For instance, you can select the buttons located in the toolbar of your Internet Explorer to navigate through the Web.

Add-On Toolbars: Common Features

Today there are numerous add-on toolbars available that you can install to add additional functionalities to popular Web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. These toolbars provide many additional features that enhance your Web browsing experience. Some of the common add-on toolbars are the Google toolbar, Yahoo toolbar, and Windows Live toolbar.

These provide you with features such as:

• Simple-to-use one-click Web search
• Bookmarks that you can access from any computer that is connected to the Internet.
• Pop-up blockers to prevent unnecessary adware pop-ups from displaying on your PC.
• Shortcuts to some common tools you use on the Web.

Add-on Toolbars: Need to Uninstall

Many times, you install add-on toolbars unknowingly. For instance, the Yahoo toolbar and Windows Live toolbar are packaged along with the latest updates of their respective messengers—Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. When you install the updates for these messengers, you will see a checkbox asking you whether you want to install the corresponding toolbar or not. This checkbox is selected by default, so if you fail to clear the checkbox, then the toolbar will be automatically installed on your computer. Multiple add-on toolbars in your Web-browser may clutter the browser window and may even slow down your Web browsing speed. Thus, you may want to get rid of unnecessary toolbars from the system.

Not all toolbars are helpful. Many toolbars, such as the Mirar tool bar are actually spyware programs. They stealthily install on your computer and copy numerous malicious files on to the hard disk. They also copy many entries in the registry. Removing Mirar toolbar and other similar spyware toolbars is important because these toolbars maliciously steal your personal and confidential information and send it to external sources.

Finally, you may want to uninstall an add-on toolbar because you find them annoying and you are fine without them.

Add-on Toolbars: Uninstall Steps

To uninstall add-on toolbars from Internet Explorer, first exit all Internet Explorer windows. Next, from the Start menu, select the Control Panel command. In the Control Panel window, select the Add or Remove Programs link. Next, scroll through the Currently installed programs list, select the toolbar you want to uninstall, and then select the Change/Remove or Remove button, whichever one is available. After the uninstall process is complete, restart Internet Explorer to verify that the uninstall was successful.

You uninstall toolbars from Firefox by using the option available in the Web-browser itself. To uninstall a toolbar, open the Tools menu in the Mozilla Firefox windows and then select Extensions. In the Firefox Extensions Manager window that is displayed, scroll down and select the toolbar you wish to uninstall. Next, select Uninstall or OK, to remove the selected toolbar. Finally, to complete the uninstall process, exit the Firefox Extension Manager window and restart the Web-browser.

It is recommended that after you have uninstalled a toolbar from your PC, you run a registry scan to ensure that all entries made during the installation of the toolbar are removed from the system. If you are removing spyware toolbars, such as the Mirar toolbar, you must perform an antispyware scan on your PC to ensure that all malicious files and registry entries added by the malicious toolbar are removed from your computer. Last but not least, be a vigilant user and do not install programs and tools that you do not need. Unnecessary programs not only clutter and fill up your hard disk with unnecessary files, but also add unwanted entries in the system registry and slow down your computer.

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