When you touch a hot stove and pull your hand away, do you need to be told not to touch it again? My guess is no. Then why is it so hard for people to resist installing smileys, toolbars and screensavers, even after they’ve been told how bad they are?

There hasn’t ever been a toolbar plugin created that anyone “needs”. Not a single one. Yet, when I open Internet Explorer on a client’s machine, there’s roughly a 90% chance that they have at least one toolbar installed. All they do is shrink the content-viewable size of the browser. I’ve seen IE browsers with four and five toolbars installed. When I ask if there’s a reason they have them installed, the customer responds with “I don’t even know how they got there”.

Here’s how to avoid them: When you’re installing software, get in the habit of reading each screen as you run through the installation process. This is often referred to as RTFS ( Read The ‘-–king’ Screen). With more reputable software vendors, you should see a check box (most likely checked) that will let you know what, in addition to the intended software, is being installed.

AVG is a great example. I love their free product, but if you’re not careful, the “AVG Security Toolbar” will be installed. Google, Yahoo! and MSN are in the same boat. Unless this is your first week with a computer, you should know how to get to the Google (or any other) search page, without a “toolbar” to help you. If not, follow these steps: Click START, then click TURN OFF COMPUTER. That should solve your problems.

The same can be said for smileys, cursors and screensavers. None of them are needed and they’re generally not good for your computer. Most downloaded “screensavers”, “smileys” and “cursors” are bundled with spyware. You have to remember, “There’s no such thing as a FREE puppy.” You’ll end-up paying for it, down the road.

Would you like to perform a quick check to see if you have an infection? Open the Control Panel and click Add & Remove Programs. Once the list of programs is populated, scroll through it and see if there are entries for any of the following: MyWebSearch, FunWeb Products, Shopper Reports, Gator, Bonzai Buddy or Viewpoint. If any of them are listed, your computer has probably been infected.