Uninstall Toolbars You Do Not Want to Keep

Many people add to the functionality of their Internet browsers by installing various add-on toolbars. These toolbars are normally designed to improve your browsing experience. The toolbars provided by Google, Yahoo and Windows Live are some of the most useful toolbars you can use as they can offer you many useful features. For example, with the use of these browser toolbars, you can perform single-click access to specific pages on the Web as well as bookmark some others. In addition, you can block pop-ups and create shortcuts to some of the most common tools that you use.

Sometimes, you may install an add-on toolbar without even knowing about it. Many legitimate downloads often arrive with a toolbar that is part of the download process. This is generally installed by default unless you clear the tick in the checkbox to stop the browser toolbar from being downloaded.

Over time, you may end up with multiple toolbars on your Internet browser. This situation is likely to muddle the browser window and can sometimes even reduce your Internet browsing speed.

To reduce the clutter you will have to remove one or more of your browser toolbars, so how do you go about doing this if you use either Internet Explorer or Firefox as your primary browser?

Uninstall Toolbars from Internet Explorer

If you want to uninstall add-on toolbars from Internet Explorer, you need to first close all Internet Explorer windows. The steps to uninstall add-on toolbars are listed as below:

• Select the Control Panel command from the Start menu to display the Control Panel window.
  
• In the Control Panel window, select the Add or Remove Programs link in Windows XP, or the Programs and Features link in Windows Vista.
  
• Browse through the currently installed programs list and select the toolbar that you want to uninstall.
  
• Next, select the Change/Remove (XP) or Uninstall (Vista) button, whichever applicable. Once the uninstall process is complete, restart Internet Explorer and verify that the toolbar has been removed.
  

Uninstall Toolbars from Firefox

You need to use the available options in the Web-browser if you want to uninstall toolbars from Firefox. Here are the steps you need to take:

• Click on the Tools menu in the Firefox window and select Add-ons, then the Extensions tab to display all your Firefox Extensions.
• In the Firefox Extensions window, scroll down the list and select the toolbar you want to uninstall.
• Next, depending on your preference, select either Disable or Uninstall. This will remove the selected toolbar from view or completely remove it.
• Now exit the Firefox Extension window and restart the Web-browser to complete the uninstall process.
  

When a toolbar is uninstalled you should perform a full system and registry scan using a good anti spyware/anti virus program to completely remove any rogue toolbar elements. This will ensure that any malicious files and registry entries are completely removed from your PC.

Tip: remember, unnecessary programs clutter your hard disk and add useless entries in your registry, which can slow down the processing speed of your computer.

To find a good removal tool see our software reviews page for both paid and free software solutions.

Also check out Soluto. Soluto can shorten the time your PC takes to start up, sometimes by a fairly substantial amount and can delete unwanted toolbar entries - www.soluto.com.

Read more articles about PC repairs, Web design & SEO