Open Internet Explorer (you may remain offline). If the undesired toolbar is not visible, right-click an empty spot on the toolbar and click the toolbar name to select it. Close all instances of Internet Explorer.

Back up the Registry. To do this, click Start, Run, type Scanregw, then press Enter and click Yes.

Click Start, Run, type RegEdit and click OK to launch the Registry Editor. In the left pane, double-click the nested Registry keys

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, Software, Microsoft, Internet Explorer

and click Toolbar. In the right pane, you'll see one or more CLSIDs (Class IDs) with 36-character names. To determine which CLSID corresponds to the toolbar of (dis)interest, right-click the CLSID name and click Rename. Press the cursor-left arrow key until the cursor is at the start of the name, then press " . " (period) and Enter. If you otherwise alter or erase the name, press Esc instead of Enter, then try again.

Open Internet Explorer and note if the foreign toolbar is visible, then close Internet Explorer. If the toolbar was visible, remove the " . " you placed in front of the CLSID. Click the next CLSID in the list and rename it as you did the first, then reopen Internet Explorer. Repeat the process until the toolbar is gone.

You have now identified the correct CLSID and can identify the software components. Right-click the CLSID, click Rename, then right-click the name, click COPY, and press Enter.

In the left pane, drag the scrollbar to the top and click HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. Click Edit, Find, right-click the "Find what:" box, and click Paste. Cursor left and remove the period you added earlier. Select all the "Look at:" options, then click Find Next.

As each instance of the CLSID is located, expand and explore the subkey(s). Note any program names and paths to the files -- they typically end with EXE, DLL, and OCX. Press F3 to locate the next key, and repeat the key exploration. Repeat until "Finished searching..." is reported.

Repeat the search and remove the components of the toolbar (described below). Typically, you will remove the CLSID key (in the left pane) located within the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Sofware\CLASSES\CLSID keys. To do this, right-click the key in the left pane, then click Delete and Yes.

For occurrences of the CLSID which appear in the right pane, you MUST NOT DELETE the key in the left pane. Instead, you will delete only the CLSID name which appears in the right pane. To do this, right-click the name in the right pane, then click Delete and Yes.

Close the Registry Editor. You can now delete the software components of the toolbar. In most cases, you can right-click My Computer and click Explorer, then navigate to the file, right-click it, and click Delete.

If the file is located in the Downloaded Program Files folder, it may not be visible. Double-click each file listed, then click Properties and Dependency. Note the filenames listed, then click OK. If the filename which appeared in the Registry is listed in Dependencies, right-click the file, then click Remove and Yes.

If the program file is in use, you'll need to start Windows in Safe Mode to delete it. To do this, restart the computer and, after the self-test beep, repeatedly tap F8, then choose "Safe Mode". You can then remove the files as described above.

[This message was edited by KingKrimson on 07-21-02 at 10:52 AM.]