How to Remove the AVG Security Toolbar

I have learned a couple more thing about Waterfox and the AVG Security Toolbar. In regards to Waterfox, according to a source from the Firefox Builds forum, the Waterfox developer did partner with AVG due to the high cost of bandwidth associated with the downloads from Source Forge. Again, it is important to understand that my outrage was not that the developer choose to bundle the AVG Security Toolbar with Waterfox as the user does get the option (though not easily) to not install the toolbar. The issue I have is that when you use Waterfox’s uninstaller, it takes it upon itself to install the AVG Security Toolbar without  even telling you. I’ve always learned that WinZip is now bundling with the AVG Security Toolbar and also makes it less than clear for the user to choose not to install the malware. I haven’t used WinZip in years, instead either using what is built-in to Windows 7 or 7-Zip (works on Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, 2008 XP, Vista and 7) which is free (even for commercial use) and doesn’t try to sneak a toolbar or any other bloatware upon an unsuspecting user.

Ghack.net has more in-depth a step-by-step guide on how to remove the AVG Security Toolbar from both IE and Firefox which includes screenshots. I had to laugh when I read the following below, as it just further demonstrates what a useless waste of recourse these Toolbars are:

“So what’s the purpose of the toolbar? It ships with a link scanner that displays security information about websites. This is similar to what Web of Trust does. The toolbar itself offers search, weather information, a link to a speedtest and other features that are not really related to security… “

Some of these features might be useful….but on a one-time basis, not something the user is going to need everyday and certainly not worth degrading their browser or for that matter overall Windows performance.

2 Comments on How to Remove the AVG Security Toolbar

  1. Where are the instruction as to how to remove the toolbar?

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