MyTransitPlanner Toolbar

MyTransitPlanner Toolbar is one of the newest browser plugins developed by Mindspark Interactive Network, Inc. At first sight, it really looks like a useful and reliable toolbar because it promises to enable users to find maps, schedules, and more. As can be seen, MyTransitPlanner Toolbar is primarily aimed at people who travel a lot. Have you installed MyTransitPlanner Toolbar too? If so, we are sure that you see the presence of MyTransitPlanner Toolbar on your Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox browsers every time you open them. Users who do not install this toolbar consciously often find this really annoying. Do not worry; we are sure we will help you to delete it from your system.

MyTransitPlanner Toolbar itself is hosted on 74.113.233.180 IP, which shows that this piece of software is developed by the company located in the United States. There is a great number of other domains hosted on the same web server, so we are sure that Mindspark Interactive Network, Inc has hundreds of different products. As our specialists working at pcthreat.com have managed to find out, you will not only see a toolbar added at the top of your browsers with such buttons as Transit Directions, Train and Bus Routes, Subway Maps, and Regional Transit, but will also notice that your regular search engine is changed to ask.com after you install the browser plugin. Therefore, MyTransitPlanner Toolbar is often categorized as a toolbar-hijacker by many researchers. Ask.com itself is considered to be a legitimate search engine; however, there is still a slight possibility that it will present you with the modified search results, i.e. search results will be filled with sponsored links, third-party advertisements, and a similar content when it comes with MyTransitPlanner Toolbar. Unfortunately, this means that MyTransitPlanner Toolbar might redirect you to bad third-party web pages and thus cause harm to your system. Specialists say that this is not the only suspicious thing about MyTransitPlanner Toolbar. They believe that MyTransitPlanner Toolbar might also gather all kinds of information about users. First of all, they have found such folders as %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCookies (on Windows 8/8.1 and 10), %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies (Windows 7), and C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files (Windows XP) where cookies are stored. In addition, they have noticed that even the Privacy Policy available on the official website of MyTransitPlanner Toolbar (free.mytransitplanner.com) informs users about that. It is said there that this browser plugin will collect the information a user provides himself/herself while using the service, it will automatically collect details about your device and the Internet connection (e.g. IP address, browser type and language, keyword query, search query text, search results, pages viewed, etc.), and it will also allow its third-party partners to gather different details about users – they will mainly use them to provide people with commercial advertisements. Luckily, MyTransitPlanner Toolbar is not interested in credit card info or banking credentials.

As has been mentioned, there are hundreds of others Mindspark Interactive Network, Inc. products; however, you can be sure that you have really encountered MyTransitPlanner Toolbar if you can detect its directories with files in %PROGRAMFILES%, %LOCALAPPDATA%, and %USERPROFILE% (64-bit Windows OS) as well as %PROGRAMFILES% and %USERPROFILE% (32-bit Windows OS). You should find its folders if you go to %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\MyTransitPlanner and %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\extensions\*MyTransitPlanner* in both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows OS as well. Even though the toolbar itself looks rather simple, it creates several registry keys too, for example, HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\MyTransitPlanner, HKCR\MyTransitPlanner, and HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MyTransitPlanner. Last but not least, such files as http_MyTransitPlanner.dl.tb.ask.com_0.localstorage-journal and http_MyTransitPlanner.dl.tb.ask.com_0.localstorage will also be added to the Local Storage directory which can be found if you go to %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\. As you have probably understood, even though this browser plugin is not the most sophisticated software, it still applies many changes upon the installation.

As you already know, MyTransitPlanner Toolbar has an official website; however, hundreds of users complain that they have not downloaded the browser plugin themselves, but still see its presence on their browsers. Actually, this is really possible because this browser plugin tends to travel bundled with other applications in software bundles. We are sure that not all the programs MyTransitPlanner Toolbar travels with are really trustworthy, so it would be clever to check the condition of your system after you have detected MyTransitPlanner Toolbar on your computer. We understand that it is very irritating to find an unknown program on the system, so we suggest that you install a security tool on your computer and keep it enabled. You should also stop downloading programs from third-party web pages and torrents because users usually download software bundles from such web pages.

In order to fully remove MyTransitPlanner Toolbar from Internet Explorer, you should delete it via Control Panel. Unfortunately, this will not work for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers. In order to delete browser plugin from these browsers, you will have to remove extensions of MyTransitPlanner Toolbar from the Add-ons Manager. Unfortunately, you will have to remove ask.com yourself too. If you do not want to do that separately, reset your browsers. Unfortunately, MyTransitPlanner Toolbar will leave a bunch of its files on the system. Below are provided instructions which will help you to get rid of them. Of course, you can use an automatic malware remover, such as SpyHunter, too.

Delete MyTransitPlanner Toolbar

Windows XP

1. Click the Start button.
2. Select Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Select the program and click Remove.

Windows 7/Vista

1. Open the Start menu and click Control Panel.
2. Click Uninstall a program.
3. Right-click on the software and click Uninstall.

Windows 8/8.1/10

1. Launch RUN (Windows key + R).
2. Enter Control Panel in the box and click OK.
3. Click Uninstall a program.
4. Select the application you wish to remove.
5. Click Uninstall.

Internet Explorer

1. Open the browser and tap Alt+T.
2. Open Internet Options and click on the Advanced tab.
3. Select Reset and put a tick in the box alongside Delete personal settings.
4. Click Reset.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open your browser and go to the Help menu.
2. Click Troubleshooting information.
3. Click Refresh Firefox.
4. Click the Refresh Firefox button once again.

Google Chrome

1. Open your browser and tap Alt+F.
2. Select Settings and scroll down.
3. Click Show advanced settings.
4. Click Reset settings.
5. Click Reset.

Delete leftovers

1. Tap the Windows key + R and enter regedit.
2. Click OK.
3. Find and delete the following registry keys: HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{04303EA5-5197-4F2E-94F0-547118022B15}, HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{04303EA5-5197-4F2E-94F0-547118022B15}, HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{7874A563-F8CF-4A67-806A-320F194F8EC9}, HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{7874A563-F8CF-4A67-806A-320F194F8EC9}, HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{F90160E4-85AF-4C93-A381-0C66A6FA83EB}, HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{F90160E4-85AF-4C93-A381-0C66A6FA83EB}.
4. Launch RUN again and enter %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Storage.
5. Locate such files as http_MyTransitPlanner.dl.tb.ask.com_0.localstorage-journal, http_MyTransitPlanner.dl.tb.ask.com_0.localstorage, http_MyTransitPlanner.dl.myway.com_0.localstorage, chrome-extension_bhfcebbgkdcafmblblapkpdhgkccpjmh_0.localstorage-journal, and Local Storage\chrome-extension_bhfcebbgkdcafmblblapkpdhgkccpjmh_0.localstorage.
6. Delete them all.
7. Find {07E451BE-78AF-4627-8647-7EB8822B13A9},{2335C0E3-8BA3-4E1F-8D56-C5604520C17C}, {386ECE26-C15E-4235-AB64-48398DF83E7E},{693EFE17-66A0-4FBB-91C4-8CED101802DA}, {6E6D2F67-B2B0-47F7-859F-9E9B05431CF3}, {7282EDB2-B176-4F94-87C1-6A5A561E1431}, {72CFD701-F809-4372-A82C-4E1D6E94CC77}, {7488051F-BA31-4741-AAAC-03DD467F2F96}, {7A0DAC36-26FE-4F58-B56D-227023855E4C}, {7F676B41-AB5B-4CDF-8D2A-25AA05B8CC13},{AB6C3571-86FD-4EA6-8F86-FAEA8B0EE8F3}, {AD6634B3-DF07-4A9C-A271-0EDE3038D992},{B87F3D48-CAA5-468D-B2BF-FF64A59D2B7C},{B958FDCA-CAA9-4CD9-89DF-14F8150B7491},{BD0BCE85-C69F-40EC-BBC1-71DE6293632B}, {CB77E99B-3F55-46A3-8EDF-36EE1C3920B8}, {CE2C15AB-9027-4D3D-8732-69702AC70243}, {D19316E0-D4E9-479B-A2D9-F1C4A3A896D9}, {D1B0ADF1-6C27-4EA0-A7F3-24011E27FDFD},{F8DF74F5-0DEC-4A88-BC6A-C4D81E749253} in the registry using Search (tap F3 when you access the Registry Editor).
8. Remove those CLSID keys one by one, i.e. right-click on each of them and select Delete.