Home Malware Programs Bad Toolbars IsoBuster Toolbar

IsoBuster Toolbar

Posted: June 11, 2013

Threat Metric

Ranking: 1,695
Threat Level: 2/10
Infected PCs: 80,901
First Seen: June 11, 2013
Last Seen: October 17, 2023
OS(es) Affected: Windows

IsoBuster Toolbar Screenshot 1The IsoBuster Toolbar is an optional extra for IsoBuster, a utility designed for retrieving deleted files and data from damaged hard drives. Although IsoBuster is a legitimate application, SpywareRemove.com malware experts consider the IsoBuster Toolbar to be a Potentially Unwanted Program and are unhappy to note that the IsoBuster Toolbar has ties to Conduit Ltd, a company known for its history of designing unwanted browser plugins. If you install IsoBuster without peering through its options carefully, the IsoBuster Toolbar will take control of your Firefox and Chrome browsers, thereby making negative changes to your homepage, Web searches and related Web-browsing activities. Because the IsoBuster Toolbar (as is common for Conduit toolbars) may try to resist being deleted, you should be ready to use anti-malware programs to delete the IsoBuster Toolbar and reverse its browser changes.

When Good Software Busts Your Browser as a Side Effect

The IsoBuster Toolbar is evidence of one of the most widely-distributed trends in Conduit Potentially Unwanted Programs: that of bundling a semi-malicious or undesirable browser plugin with a completely ordinary and useful program. In most cases, this only happens when an unofficial site begins creating its own software packages that include PUPs like IsoBuster Toolbar, but the IsoBuster Toolbar is distributed with the original installer for IsoBuster. On the other hand, IsoBuster Toolbar remains an optional inclusion, which makes the importance of examining installer options closely only more obvious than ever.

Once the IsoBuster Toolbar is installed with IsoBuster, the IsoBuster Toolbar will perform functions that are unrelated to data recovery, such as setting your homepage to a Conduit-affiliated website or redirecting your searches. These issues affect your browsers regardless of brand, albeit only for the Windows OS. Some other browser add-ons also related to Conduit Ltd include Internet Helper Toolbar, Findr Toolbar and Search, KeyBar Toolbar, Produtools, Vaf Music Toolbar, Vuze Toolbar, FLV Runner Toolbar, Delta Search Toolbar, WiseConvert Community Toolbar and Adware.2YourFace.

Recovering Your Browser Control from a File Recovery Program

Since IsoBuster Toolbar usually is installed manually, but under circumstances that make it unclear that IsoBuster Toolbar is non-beneficial for your browser, a bare minimum of awareness while installing software will keep your computer IsoBuster Toolbar-free. Unhappily, there have been reports of many instances of the IsoBuster Toolbar trying to resist being uninstalled, which is a problem you easily can avoid if you have any access to a halfway competent anti-malware program.

Sites promoted by the IsoBuster Toolbar through browser redirects and other methods, while not necessarily screened extensively for safety, are not verified as being dangerous to your PC. Currently SpywareRemove.com malware research team rates the IsoBuster Toolbar as a Potentially Unwanted Program in general or, at worst, as a low-level threat.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:
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