I remembered many years ago when Hotbar just existed and they offer a sleek cool skin for your Internet Explorer for free.

Those days trojans and viruses are still circulating around the internet wildly and adwares and spywares doesn’t even exist. Today, it’s the other way round. Trojans and viruses can be easily blocked by antivirus softwares but spywares and adwares can easily infect a computer and tough to clean.

Out of curiousity, I went to Hotbar to check if they still offer skins for Internet Explorer. Downloaded Hotbar and no skins being replaced in my Internet Explorer browser. Only a Hotbar toolbar with a series of gold buttons appeared on my Internet Explorer browser.

According to their web site, Hotbar enhances and personalizes your internet and e-mail applications. Most people use Hotbar to add smiley faces to their e-mail or to add colorful backgrounds to Internet Explorer (aka: “skins”). However, there are a few important facts you should be aware of:

1. Hotbar is adware/spyware. It monitors all web sites you visit, collects information about your interests and habits, displays pop-up ads, and provides buttons and advertisements in its toolbar.

2. Hotbar automatically updates itself from their web site without your approval. These updates can include new functionality that can by-pass security/privacy protection programs, and update the way it gathers information about you.

3. Hotbar is not an official upgrade from Microsoft for Internet Explorer or Outlook.

Other than having a series of hotbar gold buttons appeared on my Internet Explorer browser, I also noticed a series of silver buttons in my Outlook and Outlook Express.

When I use my Outlook or Outlook Express to send an email to anyone, Hotbar will automatically append either of the images to the bottom of the message.

Or…

Once in a while my Internet Explorer popups for no reason with ads! As you can see how annoying can Hotbar be compared to the few years back hotbar where they only skin your Internet Explorer to look nice.

To remove/clean/uninstall Hotbar, fortunately it’s not as nasty as other spywares such as Spy Sheriff or Look2Me.
You can either use the manual or automatic way to remove Hotbar from your computer.
Remove Hotbar manually
1. Click “Start“, “Settings” and choose “Control Panel“.
2. Choose “Add/Remove Programs“.
3. Find “Web Tools by Hotbar“.
4. Click the “Add/Remove” button at the bottom right of the window.
5. Check both browser and email toolbars
6. Press the “Uninstall” Button.

Remove Hotbar automatically
1. Use Hotbar’s Uninstaller [Download]
2. Use Symantec’s Adware.Hotbar Removal Tool [ Download ]
3. eMCO Special Removal of Hotbar Adware [ Download ]

Hope your computer will be Hotbar free when you’ve used the removal method or tool above.