Google is Clogging Up My Task Scheduler
I have been watching my computer lately to see what it’s doing on the internet. I want to make sure I haven’t been hacked. I’m surprised how many different IP addresses my computer connects to without my consent. GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe is one of them.
Using TCPView, a free program by Microsoft, I watched what internet connections were made when I opened my Firefox browser. As far as I know, I have no other applications open that should be connecting to the internet. So, just now as a test, I go to the Cuil search engine.  And to my surprise, I see that my computer connects to a Google server and a Facebook server!
Google server:Â 74.125.0.148
Facebook server:Â www-12-02.snc4.facebook.com
I see the Cuil website has a big link on the top of the page for Facebook, so that explains why my computer is connecting to Facebook, probably running a little Facebook code through Cuil’s home page.
I did not want to connect to Google or to Facebook, so this irriates me that my machine is connecting to the web like this. So what about this Google server? What information is my computer sending to Google? Keep in mind, I did not go Google’s website… I went to Cuil’s website.
Looking at the running processes on my machine, I see GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe is always running. And why is that?
“GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe is a background process…” “…used to notify you when some program is attempting to change IE default search engine to those other than Google.” source
I’m going to remove the Google Toolbar Notifier. I don’t need a program running on my computer and connecting to the internet all the time to keep track of which search engine I’m using. Sounds absurd, really, to think people need help keeping their search engine to one source. If I want Google, I’ll be sure to use Google. But I enjoy searching the web from many different perspectives. There are so many search engines. Today I’m using Cuil but I switch around all the time.
One comment on ready2beat.com claims that the Google Toolbar Notifier “sends user entered Keywords and Phrases to Google”. Does my computer send my keywords even if I am not using the Google search engine? Oh, by the way… I don’t remember installing the Google Toolbar and don’t want it. So why is it on my computer? Maybe my wife let it get installed…. sometimes these toolbars are bundled with other programs, like games for the kids, and Java updates.
How I removed GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe
Open up IE.
1. Click on Tools >> Internet Options
2. Click on the Programs tab.
3. Manage add-ons.
4. Disable.
While I was at it, I disabled all the other stuff, too, just to see if I notice any differences. I don’t use IE much, anyway. I primarily use Firefox.
OK, now it’s disabled in the IE browser. Now it’s time to uninstall it. However, when I went to the control panel to uninstall it, Google Toolbar is not shown. Hmm, it appears I can’t uninstall it like a normal program.
These are the programs installed on my machine with the word “Google” in them:
Google Earth, Google Updater, and Google Sketchup
I chose to uninstall Google Updater. Now GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe is not showing up as a running process connected to the internet.
Conclusion
If I had to repeat this process, and what I would recommend to you, is first try to go to the Control Panel and uninstall Google Updater. It might not be necessary to remove it from IE… I’m not sure. Let me know if you find out.  Give us a comment below. Following the steps above did stop GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe from making an unwanted internet connection from my computer.
Related posts:
Uninstall Google Add-on from Firefox
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