 Description
Marketed as a program to add graphical skins to IE toolbars,
it also adds its own toolbar with context-sensitive link/search
buttons.
Distribution
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.
What it does
Advertising
Yes. HotBar's toolbar grows buttons on the left-hand side
leading to advertisers' and/or paid search sites dependent
on the site you are currently viewing.
Privacy violation
Yes. 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.
Security issues
Yes. Hotbar can silently download and execute arbitrary code
from its controlling server, as an update feature.
Stability problems
None known.
Removal
Should be removable from 'Add/Remove Programs' on the Control
Panel, under the name 'HotBar' or 'Web Tools by Hotbar'.
Version 3 of the software leave some mess behind in the registry,
which you can clean up by running regedit
if you want. Keys you can delete:
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
Partial installs
Sometimes the installer gets 'stuck' and won't install Hotbar
properly. "Add/Remove Programs" still works in this case.
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