Just learned from the majorgeeks site that the ask toolbar wich seem to go with a lot of programs is actually cosidered malware. It can actually make your computer a lot slower in a lot of ways. FOr example on start up. I didnt know this and thought I'd make a friendly warning.

Thanks for the heads up!

Many thanks!

do you have a link to the article from majorgeeks?

it's a bit vague to say what you said, and what is ASK toolbar?  of course things take time to launch especially if they go into the quicklaunch (which is a misnomen in itself lol)

would be good to have some specifics. There's always a trade-off between what you want and what you're willing to put up with in return.

-Philip
dogwaffle.info - beyond digital painting

If you ask me, all toolbars are malware.

One thing that needs to be said however, is that with any toolbar, one has the choice wether to install it or not.

saying any toolbar is malware is a bit extreme imho but I understand that there's a number of them out there with spying on their mind. And often times, people install it without knowing what else happens to their system or browsing privacy.

that's why I'm always eager to learn more, plus I work also at a security company (Eset) and thus want to know details  when I hear something like this. If it's well founded then by all means it needs to be said. If however it's just a bit of an exagerated opinion from a reviewer who's had one too many bad experiences with toolbars, I'd like to think that it needs to be read with an open mind.

I made a sincere mistake about 2 years ago installing the CoolWeb Search (now that I think about it, it installed itself). Through months of work, visits to ComputerCops, etc., I found that it actually starts installing on bootup, even before you see a cursor. Eventually I had to reformat the Hard drive.

So don't install these things unless you're absolutely sure of the source (and probably not even then).

Thank you for the heads up....   what will be next...  don't ask don't tell tool bar....  ;) 

Quote - saying any toolbar is malware is a bit extreme .......

Not really. This is the definition of malware: *Malicious computer software that interferes with normal computer functions or sends personal data about the user to unauthorized parties over the Internet.

*You tell me what toolbar doesn't do that.

 Gotta agree with dhama on this...I never say yes to tool bars...not even the revered google® tool bar...LOL.. ...

Quote - > Quote - saying any toolbar is malware is a bit extreme .......

 

*You tell me what toolbar doesn't do that.

not sure, does mine?

"...what will be next...  don't ask don't tell tool bar.... "

Tom271, if you like...LOL.

In general if the ToolBar was installed without your knowledge or consent, than I would be suspicious of it, And personally that is malware.

If the toolbar is persistent and very hard to remove, than too me that is malware.

If the toolbar chews up 5% or more of my CPU Usage, its malware.

staigermanus: I can understand you are being defensive because you make the Dogwaffle Toolbar.  But you need to understand not everyone wants/needs a toolbar and if a toolbar behaves badly and starts to slow down my machine, the first thing I want to do is remove it.

Although you may think that anonymous surfing habit information sent to a server is ok, not everyone agrees with that sort of data mining.

There are a lot of dubious toolbars out there, make sure you read up on a toolbar before you install one.

actually not every toolbar installs itself without asking, and not every toolbar that can send information over the internet does this without authorisation or without informing the user that it will do this. So to claim every toolbar that sends information is unauthorized is a bit too harsh.

How about the firefox webdeveloper toolbar for instance? it does not send information to 3rd parties, except maybe for code validation, but that is something you have to activate yourself, so it wont send anything without your explicit say so. and it doesnt install itself either..

I don't care for toolbars much myself. I like to minimize the space consumed by my broser, so there's not much more than the regular menu, address bar, and my tabs. (And I use the F11 key in FireFox, if I need even more browser-space clear of clutter.)

Here's how I consider it:

If it piggybacks along with something else (another program, or some web-service) It's going in the malware category. (Spyware is a type of malware in my opinion.) If it asks whether I want it and abides by that decision, then it's in the grey area of malware. (At least then it plays by the rules, but is likely something I don't want/need anyways.)

Now if it's something you have to specifically look for on its own, isn't excessively pushed by its maker (no spamming, heavy advertizing, link farms, or other underhanded kind of crap associated with it), and only installs as a standalone software - it's probably more of a utility or add-on than malware. (Like some Firefox extensions.) But even then, if it does any of the things Analog-X64 mentioned, right back into the malware side.

According to McAfee there are 225 Malware ToolBars.
Full List Here:  McAfee Link

And A search on Symantec comes up with 100 of them.
Full List Here:  Symantec Link

Now here is something else to think about... there is a toolbar called  "AskJeeves Toolbar" to use the AskJeeves search engine.  The Toolbar is legit, however its is prone to a buffer-overflow vulnerability one of the most common vulnerabilities in software.

So Although the ToolBar is Legit, a Flaw in programming, could allow a potentially malicious website to use this flaw to cause harm through the tool Bar.

I've found myself accidentally visit a site that I thought what the information I was looking for, but turns out to be a malicious site.  My Spyware software caught it in time.

hey. sorry for no answer. been without a connection for a long time. but... it seems i didnt really need to answer anyway. im not able to find the link to the spesific article on the geeks. sorry for that. but it certainly made a difference not having that toolbar on my pc anymore.