Genealogy Chat

When I do an adaware scan, usually at the end of the day, I normally get maybe 12 bits of spyware, or less. Yesterday I inadverently gave access to Hotbar, don't know how, must have clicked wrong button. At the end of the day there were 79 of the little so and sos. So, watch out for HOTBAR, and avoid it like the plague!!! Di.

What is Hotbar and how do you give it access??

Hotbar is a program that either you installed or it installed itself. I've never had it on my computer personally, but I believe it leads you to believe it is adding a helpful feature to your computer. It probably does add a neat little helpful feature and at the same time it adds A LOT of syware to your computer. The program needs to be unistalled. Your ada-ware is probably picking up spyware Hotbar has placed on your computer and advising you that it is Hotbar related. Adaware is also removing the spyware it is placing on your computer. Adaware is probably not, though, removing the cause of the spyware, which is the Hotbar program. As long as Hotbar remains, you'll continue to get a lot more spyware items on your computer. One of the things you can do to locate exactly where this HOTBAR has lodged itself is by searching for it on your computer and locating it. Once we locate it, we can unistall it. Don't delete it. When you delete a program that is installed on your computer it does not completely remove the program....only parts of it. Leaving parts of an installed program, could, not always, cause problems. To locate where Hotbar has enbedded itself do this: 1. Click on START. 2. Click on SEARCH 3. Click on ALL FILES AND FOLDERS 4. Three fields will appear to the left of your screen. Fill in the fields as follows: In the first field that reads: ALL OR PART OF FILE, type in HOTBAR. The second field is left blank. The third field we want to read LOCAL HARD DRIVE C. If this is not already showing in that field, look to the end of the field and click on the small "v" looking icon. Scroll, find and click on LOCAL HARD DRIVE C. This will now appear in the third field. 5. Click on SEARCH and the computer will scan and give you the results of what it finds with anything on your hard drive that contains the wording HOTBAR. You'll note , in the search results, the colums are labled FILE, IN FOLDER, SIZE, etc...the 2nd column, labeled IN FOLDER, is the location of where the items were found. Under the NAME column is the name of the item found. The 2nd column is the location of that named file. This is what we're interested in - location. More than likely you can't see the full path of the location....the screen is only showing you part of the information we need. It will name the location and be followed by ........ The ...... means there is more information that is hidden from your view. In order to view the rest of the location do this: Take your mouse and place it in the gray area of the screen where the column headings are (FILE, IN FOLDER, SIZE, etc...) You'll note the column names are seperated by a small line. The line after the wording IN FOLDER, place your mouse in top of this line and your mouse pointer will change to look like a crossbow (+)....you may have to move your mouse around on top of the line a bit to get the +. When it looks like a +, click your mouse down and slide your mouse to the right. This will enlarge the IN FOLDER column and allow you to get the full location of the HOTBAR program we are looking for. The location may look something like this: C/Program/New Name/Hotbar (something to this effect) This means that the program we are looking to find and remove is on your C Drive, in your Programs Folder, hidden in a file called New Name. If you clicked open New Name you would find the hidden program. (New name I am using as an example here, we have to actually find where the porgram is.) Ok, with all that said, what you need to do is just find the location of HOTBAR and let me know where you found it....I hope directions above are understandable. Once you find it I will send directions on how to get rid of it. It's any easy fix. Judy

Anything that has Hotbar associated with it should be gotten rid of. Adaware will pick up and remove the spyware that the Hotbar program placed on your computer but the Hotbar program itself needs to be uninstalled. I took the liberty of looking up Hotbar's website and this is what the program is supposed to do for your computer, quoted from their site: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hotbar enhances and personalizes your Internet & email applications. Email: Make your emails unique with hundreds of animations, backgrounds and more. Design & send FREE eCards from your existing email. Internet: Brighten your browser with colorful images & enhance your surfing experience with Smart Buttons! ------------------------------------------------------------------- They fail to mention the spyware they add to your computer and the problems associated with that spyware that reaks havoc on your computer. IncrediMail is another program that does the same thing. Before you can get rid of it, you have to know where it is on your computer. It's more than likely hidden in a folder so you won't find a yellow folder on your computer that's labeled HOTBAR. Locate the Hotbar program by doing a search of your hard drive.....directions are above in my last post. Once you locate it, you'll know what your looking for to uninstall. Then to uninstall it you're going to use the uninstall feature your computer has. To uninstall do this: 1. Click on START 2 Click on CONTROL PANEL 3. From the list, click on ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAMS 4. Scroll and locate the name of the folder that you want to uninstall and click on it to highlight. 5. Click on REMOVE and the uninstall process will begin. Just follow the prompts when asked "do you want to remove all the files and folders associated with this program." That should remove HotBar and all of it's components. This is how any program on your computer should be safely removed....not deleted. Pictures, word documents and video clips are not programs and are safe to simply delete to your recycling bins. Anything that makes something work on your computer is a program. These are the items you want to remove as mentioned above. Hotbar is a program which is why it's uninstalled and not removed. The uninstall feature works only when a program is initially installed in your PROGRAMS FILE. So keep that in mind when you are installing a program that the program is being installed to that folder. Most programs automatically default to it so it's not a big deal. In the event that the Hotbar program does not show up in the ADD OR REMOVE LIST let me know as there is another way to choose to uninstall it. Some of those programs try to make it difficult for you to remove it. It's not that it's difficult really, just gotta know how to do it and the Hotbot people and the like are counting on the fact that most people don't know how. Any problems or questions, feel free to e-mail or catch me online....screen name KABUDY. I use the free instant messaging program Aim (which you can get at www(.)aim(.)com.) Judy There are two folders in PROGRAMS FOLDER that I have found when working with others that seem to be quite popular among the spyware community. If you go to your C Drive, Click open Program Files look to see if you have yellow folders labeled COMMON NAMES and NEW. Both of these are spyware and should be unintalled using the computers uninstall feature. WARNING: In your programs files there is a yellow folder called COMMON FILES. DO NOT remove this one...it is an operating system file....Your computer needs this one! It's not recommended to alter anything inyour Programs folder. Just browse it.....don't mess with it! Everything in this folder runs something on your computer and could mess things up if you play in it. When uninstalling programs, if your unsure what the program is, DON'T UNINSTALL IT....again, you could be uninstalling something that your computer needs to run. If in doubt ask and find out. Judy

I received an e-mail tonight from one of our fellow GCers who is having difficulty removing HotBar....it does not wish to be removed using conventional methods. That is not uncommon. HotBar has it's own uninstaller....one of which you have to go to their site and hope you can find a link that will advise you where to find the uninstaller. To make a long story short, I did find a site that explains about HotBar and offers the uninstaller. Read the article, follow the directions and when done, run your Adaware (they suggest another spyware removal....choice is yours) and then uninstall the uninstaller (that will make sense after you read the article.) If the uninstaller is not listed in the ADD OR REMOVE list when you go to remove it, this one is safe to simply right click on and delete to the recycling bin. If nothing else, from my long winded posts above, you now know how to uninstall a program and how to search your computer for a file you can't find.....LOL Don't forget to remove the brackets! http(:)//support-antivirus(.)web(.)cern.ch/support-antivirus/how-to/howto_10/howto_10(.)asp