Removing HOTBAR => Manual & Automatically

Yesterday, I found that one of our company's PCs has Hotbar on it. I downloaded the latest Ad-aware .ref file along with the latest spybot_includes.exe. Neither Spybot v1.3 nor Ad-aware 6.181 removed all remnants of Hotbar. In fact, both still report that Hotbar is present on the PC.
So, I googled a way to kill the program completely. There were 145 results to my query, but only a couple had all of the information needed. I decided to offer that information here in hopes other folks who are in the same position can use this post to completely remove Hotbar from their systems.

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What is Hotbar?
Hotbar is/was marketed as a program to add graphical skins to IE toolbars. It also adds its own toolbar with context-sensitive link/search buttons. Along with this functionality it also monitors all URLs you visit to add link buttons to its toolbar dependent on the site you are visiting. It also grows buttons on the left-hand side leading to advertisers' and/or paid search sites dependent on the site you are currently viewing.

From Hotbar.com's rhetoric: "Hotbar is an add-on that instantaneously converts your email and browser applications into powerfully personalized instruments of enhanced functionality and visual appeal. The Hotbar Browser Toolbar presents buttons on your Internet Explorer browser that change while you surf to relate to the website you visit. These buttons also provide you instant access to Search, Yellow Pages and more! The Browser toolbar also spices up your Internet Explorer with your chosen image (skin) picked from a huge variety of skins numbering into the thousands found in hundreds of galleries at www.hotbar.com ". [Website apparently defunct now]

HotBar sends the address of every web site you visit to its controlling servers along with a unique ID that would enable your web usage habits to be tracked. Some sites are monitored more closely, with full URLs and/or data entered into forms being sent to HotBar.

It is bundled with older releases of iMesh and other free software; more recently, advertised through junk e-mail purporting to be a Microsoft upgrade to Outlook.

Manual Removal
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Hotbar may be removable from 'Add/Remove Programs' on the Control Panel, under the name 'HotBar' or 'Web Tools by Hotbar'. [Doesn't completely remove all components via Add/Remove Programs in most cases]

= Version 3 of the software leaves several registry entries behind -- all of which can be cleaned up by running regedit and deleting these keys :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Hotbar HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\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

= You should also delete the 'HotBar 3.0' string: HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent

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Automatic Removal
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= Download the Hotbar uninstall program from the link below.
= Follow the on-screen instructions.
= Once completed, you can delete the HbUninst.exe file.
* Link: http://support-antivirus.web.cern.ch/support-antivirus/how-to/howto_10/HbUninst.exe
[I personally trust downloads from CERN, but always advise scanning EVERY file downloaded from the Net. Use at your own risk.]

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I hope this helps!
Best Wishes
CharlieJ

 

Hi CharlieJ...

Another good resource to use for some of these "parasites " is Doxdesk.

Here is his Hotbar link => http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/HotBar.html

He also has a parasite module that you can add to a web page. I have added to my Virus page on my Home site.

His Home page is pretty good also.

 

Hi Charlie
Try not to post dirrect download links, if at all possible
http://support-antivirus.web.cern.ch/support-antivirus/how-to/howto_10/howto_10.asp

 

Thanks all.

 

Sorry Lonny!
I didn't know that was against the rules. May I edit the post to include the link you offered instead of the direct download link?

 

THANKS Kent!
These links will be a good contribution to the thread. I realize Hotbar is old, but apparently some machines still have it installed. This thread will hopefully end up on the search engines -- and help some folks.

 

Its fine