Getting rid of the Yahoo Search bar on the Vista Taskbar
March 8, 2007
ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!! I’ve always been a Quick Launch user. I hate littering up my desktop with icons so the Quick Launch toolbar has worked just great for me. Since I got Vista, I’ve slowly been adding icons to my Quick Launch bar as I install new programs and all is well….with Quick Launch…however I’ve run across my first real Vista irritant.
I have an HP and it comes with the HP Advisor. I want to keep the Advisor around just in case I need it and to get the latest updates but I don’t necessarily want to SEE it all the time. I set my preferences NOT to automatically start the Advisor and I have this little grayed out looking HP logo sitting on my taskbar. That’s not the problem. Along with the HP logo, I also have a Yahoo Search bar. When I right clicked to close it, I found out that it’s a part of the HP Advisor toolbar and I couldn’t get rid of it in the Advisor’s Preferences so I tried to ignore it. That worked (mostly) for awhile until I started adding more program icons to the Quick Launch bar. That’s when I got really irritated because the Yahoo Search bar was taking up the room I need for my new program icons.
I searched and I searched to try and find out how to close it. I even found a forum where someone else was trying to do the same thing and much to my disappointment, the question had been deleted because nobody could find a satisfactory answer! Hey, I don’t have anything against Yahoo Search. I just don’t want it sitting there on my taskbar taking up the space I want to use for something else…
The reason I’m posting this is because I finally found my answer. I right clicked the taskbar and noticed that I had an option for various toolbars to show on my taskbar. I looked to see what toolbars I had showing and sure enough, there was the HP Advisor. I unchecked it and I am now Yahoo-less!!! YAHOO!!!!!
OK, so it’s a silly thing. It’s a minor annoyance. What difference does it really make? It makes a HUGE difference. I don’t like not being able to decide what I want to see and what I don’t want to see on my desktop. My friend, Donna, used to gripe all the time because the tech guy where we worked always came in and changed her computer’s desktop because he didn’t like the stuff she had on it. Maybe HE didn’t like it but it wasn’t HIS desktop. This is the same thing. I want my desktop to look the way I want it to look. Besides, my real desktop tends to get really cluttered really fast and I feel like less of a slob if my PC’s desktop is all neat and tidy with everything in it’s place….the place I want it to be.
Thanks for listening to my rant. Hey, it may happen to you. You may want to get rid of one of the toolbars that Vista is capable of displaying on your taskbar. When that happens, you’ll remember my Yahoo Search experience. If I hadn’t made such a big deal out of it, you might not!
Posted in Views From The Coop
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July 17th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Good lord, THANK YOU for helping me get rid of that annoying toolbar!
July 17th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Ha! I knew I wasn’t the only one being annoyed! Glad my tip was a fix for you, Mikey.
August 28th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Thanks. I googled, “removing yahoo search bar” and your info was the first I came across. Worked right away. Thanks !!!!
August 29th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Ah, to be Yahoo!-less. May the road rise up to meet ye, and may yer coffee mug always be full. Thanks for keeping me sane.
September 1st, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Thank you! I’ve been working so hard to get rid of that! I can’t believe it ended up being so easy.
September 7th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Hey, i feel dumb but i cant uncheck the yahoo search bar..i right click my task
bar and all i got was Yahoo! Search, Comparison Shopping, Search help and
Support, Launch Hp advisor, and Advisor preference. Sorry, and could u
explain it a lil more clearly ^.^ i feel dumb..
September 7th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Sorry i figured it out…Thanks alot ^.^
September 20th, 2007 at 7:20 am
thanks as i was having the same problem and was very mad as it would not go away..thanks again
September 21st, 2007 at 5:09 pm
+1
September 21st, 2007 at 9:57 pm
THANK YOU!!
Just bought this computer, and MAN I was already sick of the stupid thing!
Great entry!
September 23rd, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Trust me I get it, I’ve spent the last hour trying to get rid of it!!! Thank so much!
October 1st, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Just bought my HP and I’m sure glad you posted this
Thanks for the great tip…you saved me a lot of time.
October 1st, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Thank you so much. I’ve been trying to get rid of it for the past two days; there isn’t even anything on yahoo about it.
October 9th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
THANK YOU, thank you, thank you!
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:50 am
[...] has received the most comments! To keep this post short (well, short-ER), I’m just going to link to the original where you’ll find your answer…or you can listen to Part I of the [...]
November 19th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Thanks for your post! I just wanted to let you know that I found your blog from google while searching for a way to rid myself of the space-hogging-pib-annoying yahoo search bar… Thanks
November 25th, 2007 at 2:04 am
I LOVE VISTA!
November 25th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
THANKS A LOT!!!!
November 28th, 2007 at 6:50 am
wish this would work for me! but alas i don’t have vista. i have windows 2000
and it suddenly showed up on my task bar this morning!
i didn’t download it even so i have no clue how it got there.
i right click on the toolbar and all it lists is…address, windows media player,
links, language bar,desktop, quick launch in the toolbar selection
any help for me?
November 28th, 2007 at 6:52 am
sorry i meant window xp
December 10th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Thank-you, I have actually spoken to Microsoft and they said the yahoo search bar can actually hinder the performance of internet explorer!! So thank you….
December 12th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Finally, I have some room on my taskbar!
January 15th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
THANKs mang!! 100 points to you!!!!! So simple (slams palm on forhead). thanks
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:05 pm
You rock!!!! thanks for the answer.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:17 pm
thanks a bunch i just bought this HP and I spent alot of time trying to get rid of that yahoo search on MY tool bar
March 5th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Thanks, cleaning up my friends new computer and this helped get rid of that stupid toolbar.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
OOOOMMMGGG thank you so much! lol ive been messing with this thing for about 2 hrs trying to figure it out. dude ur my savior. no more windows stacking. thank god.. well actualy thank you!
March 7th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
jesus, that was easy. i hate how windows puts options that you realy want in stupid categories like that.
March 16th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Oh my God, THANK YOU!
That Yahoo! Search bar has been staring at me for going on a year now…
UGH!
When I went to uncheck the box, there was a box, and no text next to it.
So I unchecked that, and it appears that that was the one I was looking for.
Thanks again!
March 19th, 2008 at 12:46 am
OMG I LOVE YOU!
March 30th, 2008 at 4:30 am
Thanks a lot, mate. Could get rid of it for almost 2 hours and then i found your
hint here. easy, if you know once how to do that
April 11th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
thank you. it was annoying me relentlessly.
May 25th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Thanks so much! I got my laptop saturday, and I don’t use Yahoo period. You’re the only site I’ve found that answered my question
July 6th, 2008 at 5:52 am
Thank you so much for sharing your stumbled-upon expertise. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do that for the past 2 weeks. You are officially my new hero.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
THANK YOU! You are my HERO! I tried and tried and tried and all I got was more irritated! I am like you and want to see my desktop the way I want it.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:13 am
When I posted that little tip, I really had NO CLUE how many folks would be looking for a solution. Now that I do, I’m wondering if we should all start a club or something! Seriously, you just never know who’s having the same problem (or being frustrated by the same issue) so if you blog and have an “aha moment”, please share it with the online world!
August 16th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
THANK YOU ! (and thank google for helping me find yourpage).
September 11th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
OH thank you! So simple! I just kept right clicking the advisor itself!
October 6th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Fabulous!!!
October 29th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Thanx a lot. I just got this Laptop and I was already annoyed at this stupid Yahoo Search. I only want the Quick Toolbars that I WANT.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
praise the lord the toolbar is gone
January 7th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Thank you so much for information on ridding myself of that annoying search bar.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Thanks I finally was able to get rid of it.
January 12th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
I don’t get it o_o. Could some explain?
January 12th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
^
Now I get it =D
January 17th, 2009 at 7:34 am
Thank you Jesus! The annoying thing is gone now!!!
January 27th, 2009 at 11:40 am
[...] The latest one comes straight from this site: How To Get Rid of the Yahoo Search Bar! I’ve gotten more comments (mostly of the ‘hallelujah, it’s gone’ type) on this post than any other post I’ve done. The post is over a year old and I STILL get comments on it, so I decided to do an audio. The blog post is longer since I couldn’t get all of it into 60 seconds, but the solution is still in there. If you want to read the original post, you can read it HERE. [...]
February 10th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Here its is nearly 2 years later and this tip keeps on giving!!! This is one of those “smack-your-own-forehead” moments where you can’t believe how easy it was to do. 2 clicks!!! Thank you so much in posting this. Thank goodness for Google too.
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:21 am
THANK YOU SO MUCH OMGOODNESS YEEES
April 18th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
WOW what a difference I have a clean taskbar thanks.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Ditto to all the other thank yous. You’re the man!
June 1st, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Make that WOman, Sandra!!
August 25th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Oh my gosh THANK YOU!!! It seems so simple and I feel silly for not figuring it out sooner!
August 25th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
I know how you feel, Kristen. I can’t tell you how many things I tried before the obvious one worked!
September 1st, 2009 at 4:47 pm
THANKS!!!!!!!!! you rock
September 17th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Haha, thanks a lot, I downloaded a windows 7 theme and that bar was annoying me. When I got rid of it my bar went slightly transparent which I was wondering why it wouldn’t happen, thank God. Now it looks beautiful thanks to you.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:48 am
OMG thank you.
you kick ass
love it
January 6th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Here it is 1/6/2010 and you have made my life happier for the new year. I finally came across your answer to remove this annoying search bar in my task bar. I will now have a better year because of you. Thank you!!!!!
January 6th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
And to think I published this tip for the first time in 2007!
January 8th, 2010 at 5:18 am
I am happy now! I got rid of it! Yahoo!
February 15th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
yess! finally. this is the only site i found that solved my problem
thank you!!
February 15th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Just like the Energizer Bunny….this tip keeps going and going!
March 20th, 2010 at 10:49 am
perfect
April 3rd, 2010 at 4:40 pm
thanks it helped me … i agree it is annoying and takes up valuable real estate on task bar especially we we a lot on quick lanch.
May 26th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Your ‘gift’ keeps on giving.