my spyware shows I have a hotbar. What is it and how harmful is it? Should I remove it or just quaranteen it

Question

What is a hotbar? A worm or a virus? Plese help!

Answer 1

Hotbar is a very annoying spyware. Although Symantec has labled it as "low risk" it DOES connect to the net and sends your info to the maker of the software. Other than that, it adds stupid smilies and colors to your browser.
You may have partially uninstalled it at some point. Any good Anti-Spyware will clean it. Try Ad-Aware or Spybot S&D.
Cheers.

Answer 2

Hotbar is a BHO (browser helper object), this one just happens to be malware! You should get rid of it.

Download, install and update the following programs:
SpyBot Search & Destroy
AdAware
They are both free and can be found on this page - http://www.malwaresolutions.com/tools_spyware.html

Restart your computer in Safe Mode - (tap the F8 key as your computer is starting up) - for more on Safe Mode follow this link - http://www.malwaresolutions.com/how_to_start_in_safe_mode.html

Then run both programs (not at the same time) performing full system scans. SpyBot and AdAware should be able to remove Hotbar from your computer.

Then download and install Mozilla Firefox (it's a web browser - like Internet Explorer but much more secure!) - you can find it here - http://www.malwaresolutions.com/tools_browsers.html

If you are curious about BHO's and what spyware is - see this link - http://www.malwaresolutions.com/what_is_spyware.html

Answer 3

Hotbar is an adware program. Go here and follow the procedure and use the programs. Two of the programs can remove Hotbar.


http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/bugbusting.mspx

Answer 4

Read about hotbar here.
http://research.sunbelt-software.com/threatdisplay.aspx?name=Hotbar&threatid=6204

Answer 5

remove it...it is spyware..it monitors your computer and sends info back to someone else

Answer 6

DELETE it ASAP