Utility Chest Toolbar - How to remove

Utility Chest Toolbar (also known as UtilityChest) is an adware that causes constant redirects to UtilityChest.com and a few other websites. It is often installed on computers without even asking or informing the user. Utility Chest affects Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox browsers – changes their settings, promotes related websites (like MyWay.com), and spies on the user’s browsing habits. Anti-malware programs overwhelmingly consider Utility Chest to be unsafe (VirusTotal report).

Utility Chest Toolbar is mild malware that should not be used:

Type of malware	Browser hijacker, Adware
Distribution	Installed by other unreliable programs, promoted by ads
Problems with Utility Chest Toolbar	Gets installed unfairly, hijacks browser settings, advertises in search results, collects your browsing information
Remove Utility Chest Toolbar	Remove malware (Combo Cleaner for MacOS, SpyHunter for Windows), Uninstall Utility Chest and other adware

Effects of the Utility Chest Toolbar

The Utility Chest Toolbar replaces your homepage and default search engine. If you used to use Google.com, Bing.com, or another popular search engine, now it’s replaced with MyWebSearch, MyWay.com, or Ask.com. Not only is this done without user’s consent but these search engines do not work the same way as most of the popular search providers.

Utility Chest Toolbar is made by the same people who own those search sites. Those people (Mindspark) make money off of you using MyWay to search the web because of ads in search results. Every time you search for something, ads are displayed among real search results. This wastes your time and exposes you to third-party tracking and potentially unsafe content. More toolbars are used for this, including ProductivityBoss, PConverter, MyDigitalCalendar, and WorldOfNotes.

Although the Toolbar claims to be a useful tool that can help you to perform your calculations straight from your web browser and offers a translation software as well as some other features, it will bring you more inconveniences than benefits. Utility Chest is just used to promote websites owned by its developer and to raise their ad revenue. This is at the cost of your time and privacy.

When a browser extension gets installed, it has to show what permissions it requires to function. For Utility Chest, these include:

• controlling your new tab page (which is often the same as your homepage),
• reading and controlling MyWay.com and Ask.com websites,
• reading your browsing history (which includes all the websites that you visit),
• displaying notifications (little pop-up messages in your browser),
• and managing your extensions (so, it can see what other extensions you’ve installed).

In short, Utility Chest is bad for your online privacy. And it is especially bad if you haven’t downloaded this program by yourself. Which is likely.

How Utility Chest gets installed

Toolbars like it get installed with other free programs, such as photo editors and media players. Utility Chest Toolbar is included in the installer and gets installed at the same time as the main program. It might be mentioned in the setup wizard somewhere but if you don’t read all the text, you will miss it and “allow” it to be installed. This is unfair, but it’s not illegal. Lots of websites and developers do this – smuggle junkware with their programs. Usually, they get paid for each successful installation.

Recently, Utility Chest started being more actively advertised online. Not just with normal ads, but with adware like Best.prizedeal0919.info. These ads can be extremely aggressive and use misleading language to convince you that you must install Utility Chest Toolbar. And then, they also push Search Extension by Ask.

If Utility Chest Toolbar is on your computer, then there is a good chance that more malware is on it. All malicious and harmful programs should be removed.

How to remove Utility Chest Toolbar

We recommend removing Utility Chest Toolbar from your system if you have noticed some strange activity being performed on your computer.

If you’re a Mac user, remove Utility Chest from your Applications folder. If you use Windows, go to Control Panel -> Add and Remove programs list and uninstall it from there. You should also check browser extensions for Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome. If you do not see Utility Chest Toolbar listed, you should use antimalware tools like Combo Cleaner for Mac or Spyhunter for PC and scan your computer with it.

Below are manual instructions for removing unwanted toolbars and restoring browser settings to how you want them.

Automatic Malware removal tools

TopHow To remove Utility Chest Toolbar from Google Chrome:

• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select More Tools→Extensions
  
• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.
  
• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select Settings
  
• Select Manage Search engines
  
• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list
  
• Go back to settings. On Startup choose Open blank page (you can remove undesired pages from the set pages link too).
• If your homepage was changed, click on Chrome menu on the top right corner, select Settings. Select Open a specific page or set of pages and click on Set pages.
  
• Delete malicious search websites at a new Startup pages window by clicking “X” next to them.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Utility Chest Toolbar, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on a Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on theReset browser settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopHow to remove Utility Chest Toolbar virus from Internet Explorer:

How to remove Utility Chest Toolbar virus from Internet Explorer (older versions):

• Click on the arrow on the right of the search box.
• Do the following: on IE8-9 choose Manage Search providers, on IE7 click Change search defaults.
• Remove the Utility Chest Toolbar from the list.

How to remove Utility Chest Toolbar from IE 11:

• Click on the Settings icon (top right) → Manage Addons.
  
• Go through Toolbars and extensions. Remove everything related to Utility Chest Toolbar and items you do not know that are made not by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle or Adobe.
  
• Select Search Providers.
  
• If any of these search providers is not available, follow “Find more search providers” in the bottom of the screen and install Google.
  
• Close the Options.
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Gear icon on the top right corner to open the Internet Explorer menu, select Internet options and choose General tab. Enter a preferable URL to the homepage field and click Apply.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Utility Chest Toolbar, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Gear icon→Internet Options.
  
• Choose the Advanced tab and click on the Reset
• Select “Delete personal settings” checkbox and click on the Reset button.
  
• Click on the Close button on the confirmation box, then close your browser.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How To remove Utility Chest Toolbar from Firefox:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (Or press Ctrl+Shift+A on your keyboard).
  
• Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything Utility Chest Toolbar related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
  
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Firefox menu in the top right corner, select Options → General. Enter a preferable URL to the homepage field and click Restore to Default.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Utility Chest Toolbar, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
  
• ChooseTroubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on theReset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

If the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program to identify malicious entries.

On behalf of developers of Utility Chest Toolbar we were asked to remove this article due to false information on it. However, we feel like this post is correct and helpful to our readers. Utility Chest Toolbar and other software developed by Mindspark Interactive Network, Inc. can be detected and recognised as viruses or potentially unwanted software by various anti-malware tools. Toolbars developed by Mindspark share same EULA (End User License Agreement) that is mislieding. It claims that this software is not an adware or malware, while there are statements that toolbars might display advertisements from 3rd parties or monetise toolbars in other ways. By definition such software is considered as an adware. All articles posted on www.2-viruses.com regarding products of Mindspark are correct.

Please notice that we are affiliated with several trustworthy anti-malware tools and information about our affiliates can be found in disclosure (see the link at the bottom of this page). Some of those tools are paid while other ones can be used for free. We provide free manual removal guides as well.

Manual removal