How to remove HotBar

Hotbar Web Tools is a collection of browser and system enhancements. The primary application is the Hotbar toolbar, a which is a “skinable” browser toolbar for Internet Explorer.

When a user installs the Hotbar toolbar, other utilities are also installed including AccuWeather, a local weather program; WOWPapers, a desktop wallpaper utility; Outlook Tools, a collection of enhancements for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express email programs and ShopperReports, an Internet Explorer advertising program that pops out a sidesearch bar with competitive offers.

The Hotbar Web Tools package installs software that displays at least three types of advertising: contextual pop-up advertising on the desktop based on the users web browsing, toolbar advertising and sidesearch bar advertising.

The Hotbar software may be installed at the vendor’s web site by a traditional download process or by an Active X process sometimes found in confusing circumstances such as banner ads and pop-ups at third party web sites including some kids sites.

Problems with Hotbar:

– reconfiguration of the user’s browser home page, search settings, or other user-selectable browser preferences.
– collection and transmission of data regarding user’s internet connection, viewing, and communication habits.
– difficulty in uninstllation due to badgering or tricking the user into not uninstalling the software.

Go to Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs and remove the HotBar.
After removing the program through the Add/Remove section, you’ll want to run Regedit and remove the following keys in the registry.

HKey_Current_User\Software\Hotbar
HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Hotbar
HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\B195B3B3-8A05-11D3-97A4-0004ACA6948E
HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform\Hotbar 3.0

Also delete the ‘HotBar 3.0’ string from

HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent