“I have 3 additional tool bars on my computer screen when I go on the Internet. One is Yahoo, one is Google and one is Ask. I don’t know how they got there, but they take up too much of my screen. How do I get rid of them?”

This is a common frustration and the answer depends on what you mean by “get rid of them”. It also depends on the specific toolbar.

Yahoo & Google’s toolbars have been around for ages and are pretty mild mannered. Ask Toolbar is from a lesser known search-engine and is thought to contribute to the efforts of adware (advertisement generating software).

If you just want them to vanish with the swipe of your mouse, with the option of restoring them later on, you can just hide the toolbars.

Right-click anywhere in the general area of your toolbar and you should get a pop-up list of all the different toolbars. You’ll see check marks next to ones being displayed. Uncheck the ones don’t want. You may need to uncheck “Lock the Toolbars” first so you can make changes.

These toolbars will still be available for later; if you feel bringing them back, you can simply enable them again.

If you want them gone completely and permanently, then you’ll need to uninstall them.

The Control Panel has the Add or Remove Programs or Uninstall a Program areas in which you can take a look at a list of all the software installed on your PC, and remove the toolbar entirely here.

All toolbars in your web-browser whether its Internet Explorer or Firefox are totally optional and voluntary to have. The Google & Yahoo toolbars are ‘mild mannered’ because they’re typically installed at the user’s request. Both, also makes it pretty painless to remove the toolbar if you get tired of it at any point.

On the other hand, there are a lot of toolbars that do not. Some of these other toolbars are classified as spyware or adware, and some are just flat-out malicious. They are known to get be very difficult to remove and even get installed without your permission.

Be careful while you’re browsing the internet. If a website urges you to download their latest toolbar on your PC in order to access the content of their site, it may not be in your best interest.