ALToolbar

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on March 03, 2009

Multifunction apps are great, but they often include features you don't need, or they poorly implement ones you do. ALToolbar at least, doesn't suffer from the latter--it is a well put-together little package, from the standpoint of appearance and ease of use.

The included functions work well, generally, and are easily accessed through the toolbar added to Internet Explorer. However, the Search and Internet Cleaner functions don't offer much beyond those built into IE7, while the Capture tool has some nice, but fairly common, features. The single point of failure for this application is the ALPass and Bookmarks features' reliance on creating an online account. We couldn't receive the validation e-mail on accounts behind spam filters. The company is apparently aware of the e-mail problem, but seems to think it can do nothing about it. Yet it continues to rely on e-mail for account validation. Until the issue is addressed, users may have to jump through hoops to use the extension's two major features, which do work well once the account is finally setup.

Our testing found no stability issues, and installation and uninstallation were relatively simple. Unfortunately, a software updater was installed separately, and it and the application's installation directory were not removed on uninstall. If this toolbar's features appeal to you, and you are willing and able to work around the e-mail verification issue, then this freeware is certainly worth the download.