Hyves Toolbar

Posted by Lisa Blanc on March 24, 2014

What is Hyves Toolbar?

Hyves Toolbar is a browser plug-in that is supposed to provide you with an instant access to Hyvesgames website. However, the website itself does not seem to be offering any type of toolbar at the moment, so if you have this extension installed, it is very probable that it is created and distributed by a third party, such as Conduit. Consequently, it is highly recommended to remove Hyves Toolbar from your computer, because it could display a wide range of commercial advertisements that promote unreliable content. The plug-in is not a computer infection, but it still poses some security concerns one should not ignore. test test Download Removal Tool100% FREE spyware scan and
tested removal of Hyves Toolbar*

Where does Hyves Toolbar come from?

It would seem that Hyves Toolbar is direct product by HyvesGames website. Nevertheless, based on the research, the original toolbar which used to be promoted by the website is not longer available, as it is old and the website does not support it anymore. The Hyves Toolbar that we are dealing with here is actually created and released by Conduit. It is a Conduit Community toolbar and as such it is very similar to Radio PI Community Toolbar, VisualBee Toolbar, Travelocity Toolbar and many other applications released by the same developer.

It is very common for such applications to be bundled with freeware, but as far as Hyves Toolbar is concerned, no bundles have been found by the research team. Thus, if you have Hyves Toolbar installed, it is very likely that you have come across hyves.ourtoolbar.com/ie, hyves.ourtoolbar.com/xpi or hyves.ourtoolbar.com/cre and clicked the link somewhere on the Internet.

What does Hyves Toolbar do?

Actually if you try accessing the Conduit home page for Hyves Toolbar via hyves.ourtoolbar.com it redirects you back to hyvesgames.nl. Nevertheless, the toolbar can still be installed on your browser if you click the direct download link, and depending on the main installation settings, Hyves Toolbar can also change your search engine and home page to search.conduit.com. It is a common trait of all Conduit toolbars, but it does not mean they are browser hijackers. Users generally allow this modification to occur themselves even if they do not realize it clearly.

However, the potential home page change aside, Hyves Toolbar is considered a potentially unwanted application because it displays commercial advertisements that promote third party content. It definitely undermines Internet security, and unless you remove Hyves Toolbar from the PC, you will be constantly exposed to various computer security threats.

How to remove Hyves Toolbar?

If your default browser is Internet Explorer, you can remove Hyves Toolbar via Control Panel and then simply change the search engine manually. TAKE NOTE that upon manual removal a pop-up box appears that allows you to restore your default browser settings. Make sure you mark the “restore previous settings” option when you uninstall Hyves Toolbar.

For Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome you will need to remove Hyves Toolbar manually via browser settings, but you can find the instructions below – it is really not complicated. Last but not least, after manual removal run a full system scan with SpyHunter free scanner to determine whether your computer is absolutely clean or not.

Uninstall Hyves Toolbar

For Windows 8

Slide mouse cursor to the bottom right corner of your desktop.
Wait for Charm bar to appear and then click Settings.
Select Control Panel and go to Uninstall a program.
Highlight Hyves Toolbar and click Uninstall.

For Windows Vista & Windows 7

Press Start menu button and click Control Panel.
Open Uninstall a program and remove Hyves Toolbar.

For Windows XP

Open Start menu and go to Settings.
Select Control Panel and open Add or remove programs.
Uninstall Hyves Toolbar.

Restore browser settings

Internet Explorer

Press Alt+T and click Manage add-ons.
Click Search providers on the left.
Set a new default search engine and remove Hyves (Conduit) Search. Click Close.

Mozilla Firefox

Click the search engine icon on the left of search box (top right corner).
Click Manage search engines option on drop-down menu.
Remove Hyves (Conduit) Search from the list and click OK.
Press Firefox button and go to Add-ons.
Remove Hyves Toolbar from Extensions and restart browser.

Google Chrome

Press Alt+F and go to Tools.
Click Extensions and remove Hyves Toolbar from the list.
Click Settings on the left.
Go to Search and select Manage search engines.
Set a new default search engine and delete Hyves (Conduit) Search. Press Done.