Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Many software vendors offer a download for browser toolbars... whether we want them or not. Sometimes, the offers are hidden.
After of years of telling someone not to download anything, I just found over five to ten toolbars. Is there a way to totally block these things from not only installing silently, but no pop-ups for these things at all, but other pop-ups can still appear? She would never see the request to install it. It's a Vista with the latest Internet Explorer. I cannot convince her to go to another browser.
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In this excerpt from Answercast #16, I talk about how browser toolbars get installed and why those "pop ups" are not always something that can be stopped by a pop-up blocker.
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Browser toolbars
Ultimately, another browser is not gonna help anyway.
In fact, I honestly don't know what will.
The problem is that many software installation programs will, as part of their installation, offer to install some unrelated software.
Typically, it's an advertisement-based thing... they get paid. They get some additional revenue for offering you this unrelated software. Nine times out of ten, this unrelated software involves some kind of toolbar:
- You may also see toolbars getting installed from web pages...
- For all I know, there are downloads you can get through Facebook...
- Other social media sites do this same thing.
Stopping toolbars
The fundamental problem here is that there's no consistent approach to how toolbars are installed, how they are offered, or how setup programs are written to make these offers.
So there's no consistent way to turn the offer off or to always hide the offer from people.
The user has ultimate control
Unfortunately, there's very little that can be done to protect your computer from the person using it.
We might think of limited user accounts, which is a good way of preventing system level malware from being installed, but that's not what's happening here.
Here, we're installing user level software that's getting installed into the user's browser: Internet Explorer (although it could be Chrome, it could be Firefox, it doesn't really matter.)
So, ultimately, there's only so much that can be done to protect a computer from the user and it's not much. Education is the answer.
An implied yes
I'm not aware of a way to prevent toolbars (and such) from being installed if the computer user says, "Yes, please install them" ...even if they don't realize that they're doing that.
My blame in scenarios like this are on the software vendors who are trying to get this stuff installed... whether the user would really want it or not! They are basically hiding the options or being misleading about the options.
So, that very long answer comes down to a very short resolution that says, "No, I don't know of a way to prevent this from happening. I'm sorry."
Next from Answercast #16 - How do I read my Acronis backup data on a computer without Acronis?
Article C5328 - May 10, 2012 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
May 11, 2012 10:30 PM
I found a nifty lil' app at Major Geeks for removing unwanted tool bars.
I'm on a friends machine at the moment and can't remember what it's called.
May 12, 2012 7:24 AM
Yeah, I also blame the software vendors who seem to hope that the user won'y be savy enough to spot the offered extra. I understand that there is little that can (or should) be done at admin level to block user level toolbars form being installed to the users environment. But what bothers me is when "user A" accepts a firefox toolbar that "user A" thinks is nifty, "user B" also gets stuck with it, Even though "user B" doesn't like ANY toolbars clttering up his browser window... In my case I, "user B" have the only admin account on the WinXP box where this happens. And as soon as I happen to login and trip over said toolbar I'm looking for it in the add/remove software contol pannel app. But what chance would I have if "user A" was the one with the admin priviliges???
May 12, 2012 9:23 AM
"Gonna"- really?
12-May-2012
May 14, 2012 8:25 AM
You can always change the icon's properties to start the browser without any plugins. Unfortunately, in addition to blocking toolbars, it will block *all* plugins.
With Firefox and Chrome, you can type "about:plugins" into the address bar to see what plugins you have. Safari uses "help / installed plug-ins" from the menu. IE uses "tools / manage add-ons" for this. You'd be surprised as to just how many plug-ins you have, and use, in normal use.
While browsers are getting better at letting you manage such add-ons, including disabling and/or uninstalling them, there's not much that can be done to stop someone from saying "yes, install this toolbar", especially when such things are done from outside of the browser itself.
May 22, 2012 9:31 PM
Excellent answer by Dick... You should normally avoid the Normal / Default / Recommended installation of downloaded software. They call the alternative way Custom / Expert or some such but don't be intimidated by such names because a compleat idiot can do it. Simply opt out of all toolbars and other freebies offered during installation, typically by UNchecking them (usually pre-checked, by "default"). And don't be aftaid of a mistake, as you can always uninstall and start over.