Browser toolbars are one example of a program being bundled with many free programs in recent years. The toolbars are a small rectangular bar that appears directly under the Address Bar in Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Google has one, so does Yahoo, but many non-legit brands also have them available. Although they may be useful, some of these toolbars are tracking your internet surfing and computer habits.

Companies are looking for any way they can to save money, in paid or free software. A lot of software is now including the options to install other programs along with it, browser toolbars, and other little “extras”.

It takes only an extra few seconds to read each screen as a program installs on your computer. Each step may be asking you to install something you may not want, and many include checkboxes to give you the option. If you don’t uncheck those checkboxes, that extra program you just agreed to may just slow your system down.

I’ve heard it referred to as “next, next, next syndrome”, because many software installations include a “next” button at each step. Many have become so complacent, they don’t want to pay attention to what’s being asked, they just want to install the software so they can use it, and that’s just lazy.

Those few extra seconds of time spent reading and understanding what is being installed on your computer can honestly mean the difference of spyware, or in some cases, a virus, making its way on to your system, depending on how legitimate the program you are installing is.

Taking the time to understand exactly what you’re installing will also prevent extra programs from installing that can damage or crash your computer, or as many have noticed, they can also slow your system down to a crawl at times.

Another disadvantage to many software installations is they will ask the user if they want the program to automatically start each time you turn your computer on, which for many programs, is completely unnecessary. If you want to use a program, the user can start it yourself as they need it.

If there is a program on that starts up when your computer is turned on that you don’t want to be automatically running, press the “Windows logo key+R” and in the text box, type “msconfig” (without the quotes), and go to the “startup” tab, and uncheck anything you don’t want running when you turn the computer on.

To uninstall many of the extras, such as toolbars that you no longer want, left-click the Start Menu, click on “Control Panel”, then double-click “Add/Remove Programs” (Programs and Features in Windows Vista), click the program, and choose “Uninstall”.

Originally posted 2009-01-26 18:20:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter