What are add ons and how do you dispose of them?

Answer 1

Go to the Start menu and select internet Explorer from the program list.

Right on the IE icon and select properties.

On the Short Cut page delete anything after "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"

Such as: "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"xxxxxx

Go to General and delete anything after Internet Explorer. Problem solved!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jan 9, 2009. Well, maybe not solved. I don't know who wrote the "answer" above, but that method will, in fact, actually enable them all. There IS a switch (representing the xxxxxx's) which will disable all-ons, but it won't remove them. So, if you don't want to enable them all, then DON'T follow the advice above. I can't recall for sure what the switch is to stop all add-ons from being added, but it's something like -extoff (Google it.) Unless you want to disable all of the add-ons for some troubleshooting steps, the best thing to do is to disable them one at a time, because you may want to keep some of them enabled. To disable them piecemeal, open IE, Tools, Manage Add-ons, select the one you wish to disable, and click on disable at the bottom. Keep doing this for any you wish to disable. (or click on enable to enable the add-on) If the enable/disable buttons are greyed out (all of them), then try the following: (Caution: If you don't know how to safely edit the registry, find some guru who does know how to do it. Incorrectly editing the registry could hobble your PC to the point that it won't boot, requiring the complete reinstallation of the operating system and all software.) HKLM (or HKCU) \SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions and set NoExtensionManagement to 0 (zero) (this will remove the greyness.) (Setting it to 1 will grey out all the add-ons, thus preventing you from changing the status. ) What are add-ons? Well they are add-ons (usually by 3rd parties) to IE that allow you do different things in IE, like to view flash files (often called movies or a videos) on a web news site, or to make a pdf of a web page (if you have Adobe Acrobat Pro). Some are helpful antispyware add-ons, like McAfee's SiteAdvisor, etc. On the other hand, some add-ons are malicious pieces of spyware/malware and may slow your PC down or do other malicious things (and these should be disabled and removed -- removed by running a good antispyware or antimalware app.) (The removal of spyware should be done by a knowledgeable person, so you don't delete something useful or essential.)