August 9, 2010

Removing Annoying Toolbars

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

Take a look at your web browser, especially if it’s Internet Explorer. Do you see something extra on the screen? Is the browser window getting inexplicably small? Then you probably have toolbar bloat.

One of the stupid things about computers is that it’s so easy to customize things. I supposed the developers do that to keep things flexible and let you make your computer work best for you.

Problem: Most people don’t care.

Customization, modification, personalization — it’s all lost on most users.

In fact, most of the time, a typical user stumbles into a customization option. Then they’re either panicked or frustrated that they can’t get things back to the way they were.

So much for flexible.

Figure 1 illustrates an Internet Explorer window with three add-on toolbars displayed. Top-to-bottom they are Google, Windows Live, and Yahoo. Ugh.

Figure 1. IE in Toolbar Hell.

Removing the toolbars isn’t hell, however. It’s simple:

  1. Right-click on the left end of the toolbar.
  2. Choose the toolbar name from the pop-up menu.
  3. If you’re prompted to disable the add-on, click the Disable button.

If there are other options to check in Step 3, then check them all. I’m serious. Disable everything. That could make your system run faster.

When you right-click the Google toolbar you may see a custom pop-up menu. If so, choose the option to disable the toolbar. Or you can click on the X close button, in which case you may be prompted to disable the toolbar.

Here’s a tip for customizing any program window: Use the View menu.

On the View menu you’ll usually find options for hiding and displaying various options. Sometimes where is a Toolbars submenu found on the main View menu.

If you don’t see a View menu, press the F10 key. In many Windows programs, pressing that key displays a hidden menu bar, from which you can choose the View menu.

In some programs, the options for showing and hiding toolbars might be found in the Windows menu.

Where do the toolbars go when you banish them? Why, they go straight back to Toolbar Hell.

6 Comments

  1. And Toolbar Hell is precisely where they belong.

    Seriously, I don’t know why people bother with Google\Yahoo\Whatever toolbars in IE, especially when you’ve got that nifty little searchy box up in the top right hand corner that will search all that for you.

    McAfee, Norton and I believe Trend Micro also install a toolbar into IE, and Firefox as well sometimes, that does anti-phishing. Norton will also manage your logins. Although this may be useful to some people, I find them annoying and space hogging.

    Some Canon and Epson printers install “Easy Print” toolbars in IE, which are kind of irrelevant these days when IE has competent printing facilities that will do all the automatic text adjusting. Hell, even Adobe also likes to join in the party with their Acrobat toolbar that lets you PDFerize web pages.

    Why do companies feel we need some of these toolbars? One reason why I enjoy surfing the internet with Chrome is that Google got it right: the emphasis should be less on the toolbars and whatnot, it should be on the webpages, which is what you came on the internet to see… right?

    On the note of Browser Toolbars, this image is just too funny to pass up… http://anesthesia.uchicago.edu/images/intranet/SpywareInfestation.jpg

    Comment by Douglas — August 9, 2010 @ 4:15 am

  2. Right!

    I think it’s typical Microsoft bloat. They design features that they guess people will like, and it’s re-inforced by their horrid “usability labs.” Then people say, “Hey! That other company has a toolbar! We need one too!” And a vicious cycle starts, which none of the users ever wanted or demanded.

    Microsoft…

    Comment by admin — August 9, 2010 @ 6:59 am

  3. Ha ha that picture is what my first PC looked the one I learnt on. I discovered CNET and downloaded some free programs most of which came with tool bar and I didn’t know how to not install them now. Mind you when you do install a program the little box you have to untick is pretty small. A really annoying one is the ASK toolbar. I was having some trouble with my Anti virus software and the said it would be a good idea to get rid of it,I must have disabled it but it was still on my PC, so I had to un install it completely, I think it was a security issue.

    Comment by chiefnoobie — August 14, 2010 @ 5:41 am

  4. Another point: Check the “Custom” or “Advanced” option when installing new software. There is nothing really advanced about the options displayed, other than you get to choose what to install and what not to install. The “what not to install” items often include these annoying toolbars, as well as other add-on products that don’t enhance the value of the program you’re installing.

    Comment by admin — August 14, 2010 @ 7:06 am

  5. I have an older PC which I use for testing stuff out on I recently installed AVG which is a great program light on system resources. When you install or do certain updates it brings up a box asking whether you want to install the AVG/yahoo task bar, I said no. Didn’t make a blind bit of difference however it just when ahead and put a big old tool bar on Firefox and IE. So I went into the Firefox add ons and tried to uninstall it, and it wouldn’t let you. I had to go into the Firefox program files and delete the whole thing. I don’t know why they make it so hard to get rid of. I think the tool bar is for novice users or something, but it’s the sort of thing that really bugs me.

    Comment by chiefnoobie — August 17, 2010 @ 11:09 am

  6. I received a notice about the AVG toolbar today. I just canceled out of it. Perhaps it didn’t install it anyway because the Yahoo toolbar is already installed (and disabled)?

    Comment by admin — August 17, 2010 @ 11:18 am

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