A Toolbar Tip

Here's a tip for all websites and programs that offer toolbars: don't download or install them.

While it's true that some of the toolbars from Microsoft's Bing or from Google and Yahoo can make searching easier, they often come with unmentioned side affects.

Installing Yahoo's toolbar, for instance, made the Firefox "Menu Bar" disappear for some reason, making it extremely difficult to remove. Nearly all of these toolbars change computer or Internet settings, usually without the user's knowledge.

Bing, Yahoo and Google will usually just change your default search setting, which isn't really a big deal.

However, during a "computer cleaning period" today, it became clear that some of these other toolbars can be pretty malicious.

Some of the kids download and install free game demos they find online, unaware that they are also installing the toolbars that come along with them. Some of the toolbars, like the Free Lunch Design one that comes along with the popular game Icy Tower, are harmless, can be removed quite easily and don't change your settings.

However, one toolbar called "MyWebSearch" is nothing more than a cover for tons and tons of Adware. In fact, three of the computers had this toolbar installed on them, and a MalwareBytes scan found over 250 infected Adware files on EACH computer.

"MyWebSearch" also changed browser homepages and settings, including default search settings.

The moral of the story remains: make sure you read the dialog box for everything you download, and don't download anything that doesn't come from a trusted source or company.

We're Running Leaner and Cleaner

Even though our computers are less than a month old, there is still occasional maintenance that needs to be done. Today was one of those maintenance days, where some small changes had to be made and programs had to be run to ensure that the computers keep running like new.

The first of these programs is CC Cleaner, a program that clears out and deletes things like Internet Caches and histories. Basically, CC Cleaner deletes all of the old files Windows keeps sitting around. CC Cleaner was run on all of the computers, and cleared out anywhere from 400-600 megabytes of space on each!

Above: CC Cleaner in action, cleaning out unused files

The next bit of maintenance that needed to be done involved virus and spy-ware removal. We used the program Malware Bytes Anti-Malware to scan all of the computers for any signs of viruses, ad-ware or spy-ware, things no one wants to find on their computer.

Luckily, the computers were clean for the most part, save for one that was infected with bunches of spy-ware, likely due to unauthorized downloads and Internet toolbars. The offending files were removed, and all of the computers are now clean.

Above: Malware Bytes showing us what we want to see: 0 infected files!

A tip for any Internet surfers: watch what you download. Many programs like free games or music come packaged with toolbars that are filled with ad-ware or spy-ware. When installing something, take the time to actually read the print instead of just hitting "next" over and over again.

After today's updates, the computers should be running even faster and safer than ever before!

Downloads:

• Malware Bytes
• CC Cleaner