Browser Add ons!  The quest for too many toolbars!

Toolbars are a handy item to for your browser.  Whether you are using Google Chrome or Internet Explorer or even Mozilla, they can keep track of a lot of things for you and even assist you with the maintenance of your computer.  But like everything else in life, there is a good and a bad to them as well! 

There are a bunch of tool bars out there. (oh, for the sake of this article, lets remember that the toolbars we are talking about is the BHO Broswer add on type… If ya wanna argue some more, then shoot me an email and we can talk about the dozen other features on a computer called a toolbar!  ) Nerds and computer folks even use them.  We all have our preferences.  Depending mostly on how you use your computer.  They come in all different shapes and sizes too.  These buttons are called radio buttons and some have text on them, numbers on them, images and graphics etc.  This is a quick and easy way to make your internet experience easier and its also good marketing for the producer of the toolbar.  Helps with their stats and gives them access to reach out to you, the user.  So what exactly is a toolbar and why are they not always a good thing?

Some of the more popular toolbars out there you may have seen would be like the AOL toolbar, the ask.com toolbar, the Google Toolbar, MSN Toolbar and of course Yahoo.  All of those listed are cool and can make life a little bit easier when you have your browser open.  But there are some toolbars out there that actually contain spyware and other kinds of malware and that is never a cool thing.  But lets focus on the cool toolbars right now.

Do you find yourself going to google a lot every time you open your web browser?  Do you hate pop ups from websites like www.starbulletin.com?  Or sometimes, even www.cnn.com can throw one your way.  I have a google toolbar installed on my work computer and love it.  Makes a small sound when a pop up is blocked and instead of actually going to www.google.com and then typing in what I am looking for, I just go ahead and type Cowabunga computers right into the toolbar I have installed and there you have it, the same result as if I went to the google homepage.  http://tinyurl.com/ychuwwq  Not everyone likes google and some people might prefer something like yahoo or bling (msn).  But these toolbar additions to your browser make it so much easier to navigate.  If you are looking for a specific kind of toolbar, don’t be afraid to give it a shot and look for it online.  Just go to your favorite search engine like google and type in..  cowabunga toolbar.  Of course we don’t have any but just like what you are looking for, if it aint there, it aint. 

One thing I find interesting is when a customer would bring in a computer and when we open the browser, we see like 2-3 different toolbars on the browser.  WHY?  Are you the type of person that drives around in a car with 2-3 different GPS devices?  Do you have a spare to a spare tire in the trunk of your car?  Get what I am trying to say?  There you go… 
But what if you didn’t install or didn’t know you installed it?  There is a good chance that the toolbar got installed when you could have installed another application.  Maybe you went to get a free version of AVG antivirus.  Did you know that when you install the AVG it came with a yahoo toolbar?  I just reinstalled my java and I got stuck with a McAfee toolbar and that was slightly bizarre.  But have no fear.  I personally don’t like a cluttered up browser so I just went to add remove in the control panel and got rid of it.  There is still a lot that you can do.  Pretty basic and like with anything else, doesn’t take much. 

If you are an XP user and want to remove a toolbar, you just:
START-CONTROL PANEL-ADD/REMOVE  PROGRAMS, look for the thing and delete it.  It might need to restart but that’s not a big thing. 

If you are a VISTA user and want to remove a toolbar, you just:
START-CONTROL PANEL-UNINSTALL A PROGRAM-(This is where I prefer the Classic View … look for it on the left) and double click the Programs and Features.  Find the toolbar or application you wanna get rid of there you have it.  

If you are a WIN7 user and want to remove a toolbar, you just:
START-CONTROL PANEL-PROGRAMS and Bam, its right there.  But make sure your view doesn’t show the ones with all of the icons like the one in the picture or you will be staring at the screen for a loooong time!  

One word of advice, absolutely make sure that you remove applications the right way.  The way I showed you above is simple and clean.  Minimizes orphan files and it helps with the overall performance of the computer.  You should never just look for icons and remove by dragging to a desktop.  1) that wont work and 2) it’ll screw your computer up even more!
Easy tips to making a toolbar work for you and you don’t become a tool to your PC! 

• Be careful of what you download.  
• Watch the installation process.  A lot of times, boxes will already be checked off so don’t just clickity click and be click happy.  Pay attention to the process!
• o If there is something that you don’t want to install, the application you want might not download properly.  Sometimes, the owners of the toolbars will “pay” a uber small percentage to make one of their products a part of the installation process.  So if that’s the case, you can try and get your application go through the process and then remove just the toolbar later!
• You generally don’t need more than one toolbar.  
• Every toolbar serves a purpose.  Remember that you can still go and configure the toolbar to use the way that you want to.  
• And remember, most of the toolbars out there don’t come with spyware or malware but be careful of where you are downloading it from.  
• You can get an un volunteered toolbar download for doing just about anything.  When you want to get skype, AIM, Yahoo chat etc., it might add in a toolbar. o The same with viruses, you have to give things permission to be a part of your computer.  Just be careful of what you are giving permission to.  
• Just my final warning .  There are some paranoid folks out there who say that allowing a toolbar to be installed creates an avenue to the outside world and thus viruses blah blah.  Well, an enhanced toolbar (which is what we have been talking about along) has access to everything the browser you are using has.  THAT’S why its ok. 

Are toolbars safe to have on your computer?  Sure they are.  Are they handy?  Of course!  Do you need more than one?  Not really.  Is it ok to NOT have a toolbar?  Of course!  At the end of the day, a toolbar is just that.  A TOOL bar.  Its something unique and different.  Cuts down on the pain of clicking all over the place and it works out well.  Just be wise to have the one that is best suited for you!