I come across systems all the time that are loaded down with toolbar after toolbar after toolbar.  Not only is this slowing the browsing experience down, but there are privacy concerns with browser toolbars and helper objects (BHO).
Quite often, toolbars are installed as an option when installing other software.  Take for example the Ask.com toolbar which installs itself if you do not OPT-OUT during your Java installation (or update).
Thankfully Internet Explorer 9 makes it a little nicer by not just enabling any toolbar that is installed — you will get a notification asking if you want to enable the toolbar/addon.
Most users, I assume, just click through this and enable them.  So now they have Ask.com, Google, ShopAtHome, MyWebSearch and various other toolbars installed which ultimately slows the browsing experience down.
This tool, Toolbar Cleaner, helps you remove these in a few clicks instead of fumbling through Internet Explorer options.
Toolbar Cleaner can be found at http://toolbarcleaner.com/.
Nice tool, and it’s FREE.
[stextbox id=download]Download Toolbar Cleaner:  http://www.toolbarcleaner.com/[/stextbox]
It also has a basic startup removal utility to help manage applications that start-up when your computer starts.  Note that this does not alter any services; only start-up items.

When clicking on any links in an Outlook email message, a user is presented with the following error:
 

 
 
 
 
This seems to be caused by a number of things, most popular being uninstall of Google Chrome that doesn’t cleanup properly.
To resolve this, you can take a few steps. If step 1 does not work, continue to step 2.:

1. Set Internet Explorer as Default Browser
   Tools -> Internet Options -> Programs and click Make Default
   
   

   

Close Outlook and any open Internet Explorer windows and re-open Outlook and try to click on the hyperlinks in the email. They should now work.

2. Run the following commands

   REG ADD HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClasses.htm /ve /d htmlfile /f
   REG ADD HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClasses.html /ve /d htmlfile /f
   REG ADD HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClasses.shtml /ve /d htmlfile /f
   REG ADD HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClasses.xht /ve /d htmlfile /f
   REG ADD HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClasses.xhtml /ve /d htmlfile /f

After reviewing my typical Monday morning report of server activity, I noticed a handful of users installed Google Chrome.
I can’t uninstall this globally as an Administrator so I had to run the following from the command-line as their user.  Start -> Run -> “cmd” right-click and “Run As Different User…” and enter the user’s credentials.
C:UsersdoejohnAppDataLocalGoogleChromeApplication21.0.1180.60Installersetup.exe –uninstall –force-uninstall
The Application folder still exists, so the following removes it
rd /S /Q “c:usersdoejohnAppDataLocalGoogleChrome”
Further, I decided to remove the entire “Google” folder
rd /S /Q “c:usersdoejohnAppDataLocalGoogle”
After that, I decided it was time to enforce not allowing Google Chrome to be installed on this terminal server.  Sorry Google.  =)

1. Open the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC).
2. Right-click your domain and choose the Create a GPO in this domain, and link it here option.
3. Name the Group Policy Object (GPO) Block Google Chrome and click OK.
4. Right-click the policy you just created and click Edit.
5. Navigate to the User ConfigurationPoliciesWindows SettingsSecurity SettingsSoftware Restriction Policies folder.
6. Right-click Software Restriction Policies and select New Software Restriction Policies.
7. Right click Additional Rules and choose New Path Rule.
8. In the Path field, type chromesetup.exe.
9. In the Security level drop-down box, choose Disallowed and click OK.
10. Repeat steps 7 through 9 for the chrome.exe and gears-chrome-opt.msi files.
11. Repeat steps 7 through 9 for the path C:Users%username%AppDataLocalGoogleChromeApplicationchrome.exe for Vista machines or C:Documents and Settings%username%Local SettingsApplication DataGoogleChromeApplicationchrome.exe for XP machines. You should include this rule in case some of your users have already installed the browser. After you implement the GPO and the Group Policy settings refresh on those users’ local machines, they’ll no longer be able to successfully run Google Chrome.
12. Open a command-prompt window and run the command

    gpupdate /force

    to apply the new rules.

13. Run the command

    gpresult /R

    in Vista SP1 or the command

    gpresult

    in XP and Vista (pre-SP1) to verify that the newly created GPO has successfully been applied.

14. As a final test, attempt to run the installer from the Google Chrome website. If the policy is successful, you should see the error that shows.
    

 

There is an article outlining how to help increase stability of your Chrome browser by making plugins Click to Play. This is good and dandy but what I’ve seen is that even after you allow a plugin (flash player in this case) to run, it remains loaded after you navigate away from the page or close the tab.
Here is a video demonstration of the process I use to enable Click to Play and show what is happening.
[jwplayer config=Custom Player mediaid=4980]