What is Hotbar Virus?
Hotbar is an unnecessary toolbar that generates tons of annoying pop-up messages. The messages displayed to the infected user are not random. They are based on the user’s browsing habits that are monitored by Hotbar. The browser toolbar installed by this adware works on various browsers – Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8, Firefox 3.6 and 4.0. We can also presuppose that Hotbar can function on the newest versions of the browsers as well.
At first Hotbar was distributed as a legitimate browser plugin that enhances browser functionality. The official distribution by Zango Company was discontinued in August 2010, but whoever has the installer file can still easily infect computers with Hotbar. This adware program has multiple components and it allows delivering target advertising. Hotbar can further compromise computer system security by installing additional components usually detected as Win32/ShopperReports and Win32/ClickPotato.
Internet browser is not the only thing that gets modified by Hotbar. This adware installs graphical skins for Outlook and Outlook Express. Not to mention that it collects user’s information behind his back and also downloads its own updates without a single notification. Hotbar is known to connect to a list of affiliated websites including clickpotato.tv, hotbar.com, platrium.com, zango.com and others. There is also a list of other websites that Hotbar connects to in order to download and install additional software onto the affected computer. For example, it connects to ezaza.com, pricepeep.net, spamblockerutility.com and the like.
Bundled software that comes with Hotbar include Adware:Win32/ZangoSearchAssistant and BrowserModifier:Win32/Zwangi. Hotbar is also responsible for leading the users into cypersquatting websites that actually offer bogus software instead of the real one. For example, Hotbar sometimes redirects to fake Audacity websites.
Due to the fact that Hotbar is commonly bundled with other software, it is quite possible for this adware to infect the user’s computer with dangerous malware. For example, scan logs of those infected with Live Security Platinum rogue antispyware often reveal files related to Hotbar, for example, HKLM\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\extensions|HBLite.com (Adware.Hotbar). Therefore, removing Hotbar means stopping a whole list of malicious programs from entering your system.
In order to remove Hotbar, you need to acquire a legitimate antimalware tool that would help you to erase the adware automatically. Manual removal would be very tricky, because Hotbar is a multi-component adware, and if you miss one component, you need to start the removal process all over, because even on component can “attract” more malware onto your computer.
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