Browser Helper Objects, Known as BHOs
Browser Helper Objects, or BHOs can be either good or bad, but most of them contain spyware in one form or another.
I happen to like and use the Google Toolbar, which is a BHO. When I installed it, I was given the option to "enable the Google Toolbar's advanced features (e.g., viewing the Page Rank of web pages), the URLs of the sites you visit will automatically be forwarded to Google." I can also decide to turn this feature off later. Google has an extensive FAQ about their toolbar and gives explicit instructions on how to use it, disable or uninstall it. I like my Google Toolbar! It stops popups! It also tells me what my Page Rank is for this website.
There are so many other BHOs out there it would be almost impossible for me to name them all. I used to use one called Hotbar. It allowed me to put a lot of different 'skins' for Internet Explorer, and since I really like my 'eye candy' I thought it was great! Hotbar also is spyware. Read what Spyware Guide has to say about Hotbar
Sometimes these BHOs just sneak onto your computer and you don't even realize they are there! Some of them can be downright malicious!
You can find out if you have any BHOs on your computer in your Startup by
downloading and running a real cool little utility called 'StartupRun
v1.20'. This little gem will also tell you everything else that loads in
your Startup!
Here's what the website says about StartupRun: The StartupRun utility
displays the list of all applications that are loaded automatically when
Windows boots. For each application, additional information is displayed
(Product Name, File Version, Description, and Company Name), in order to
allow you to easily identify the applications that are loaded at Windows
startup. if StartupRun identifies a spyware or adware program that runs at
startup, it automatically paints it in pink color. In addition, you are
allowed to Edit, disable, enable and delete the selected startup entries.
You can also save the list of startup items into a text or html files, and
even add a new startup entry to the Registry. You can get StartupRun on
nirsoft.mirrorz.com. While you are
there, check out the other free utilities there.
Think of BHODemon
as a guardian for your Internet browser: it protects you from unknown
Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), by letting you enable/disable them
individually.
(but it runs at Startup!)