Bad Toolbars are malicious toolbars that secretly install without the computer user’s permission or knowledge. A bad toolbar, or malware toolbar, may come packaged with other unwanted programs. Bad Toolbars can either track every action an Internet user does online to display irritating advertisements or serve as a portal for malicious software. Although there are legitimate toolbars designed to enhance a Web browser’s functionality, there are seedy toolbars that camouflage themselves as honest-looking toolbars and perform harmful functions on a PC.
Bad toolbars often install themselves when Internet users click malware-laced pop-up advertisements or through a driver-by installation. Malicious toolbars track your Internet activities and send all the data collected to a special third-party web server. Some of the issues that malicious toolbars can cause on your computer include display annoying pop-up advertisements, change the default homepage of the web browser, adversely affect your computer’s performance, and hijack your web browser and redirect to random websites other than the one you typed into your web browser.