Overview |
Vendor Notes: |
from the website: 'The WhenUSearch Desktop Toolbar gives you easy access to powerful Internet search capabilities, while presenting you with exclusive, special offers and websites right inside the toolbar. You get an Internet search toolbar that is always available to you at the bottom of your desktop, providing you relevant information, right when you need it.'
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Category: |
Toolbar: A group of buttons which perform common tasks. A toolbar for Internet Explorer is nomally located below the menu bar at the top of the form. Toolbars may be created by Browser Helper Objects.
Search Hijacker: Any software that resets your browser's settings to point to other sites when you perform a search. Hijacks may reroute your info and address requests through an unseen site, capturing that info. In such hijacks, your browser may behave normally, but be slower. Search results when such a hijacker is running will sometimes differ from non-hijacked results. |
Similar Pests: |
Toolbar · Search Hijacker |
Origins |
Group: |
WhenU.com, Inc. |
By This Group: |
Whenu.ClockSync · |
Date of Origin: |
May, 2004 |
Distribution |
Prevalence: |
WhenUSearch: 0.1%
More Info |
Clot Factor: |
WhenUSearch: 24
The "Clot Factor" is a measure of how much a pest "gums up" a machine by adding registry entries, files, and directories. As more objects are placed in a machine, manual removal becomes more difficult and more error-prone. |
Growth: |
WhenUSearch: Insufficient data to report growth |
Operation |
Storage Required: |
WhenUSearch: at least 7717 KB |
Browser Performance: |
Likely to slow performance of Internet Explorer. |
Risks |
Privacy Policy: |
from the doc: "PRIVACY STATEMENT SaveNow By downloading the SaveNow software (“SaveNow”), you give permission to WhenU.com to display relevant contextual information and offers. SaveNow selects which ads and offers to display to individual users based on several factors, including: URLs associated with web pages visited by the user, search terms typed by the user into search engines and into the WhenUSearch Toolbar, HTML content of the web pages viewed by the user and the local zip code of the user. SaveNow protects users' privacy by uploading a database of content in small chunks to individual desktops and then determining on the desktop whether or not to retrieve information from WhenU.com or third-party servers. To protect user privacy, the same database of content is sent to all desktops. Decisions regarding which ads to retrieve to an individual desktop are all processed on the user's desktop - and isolated from WhenU.com servers. User privacy is also protected in the following manner: 1) Personally identifiable information is NOT required in order to use the software and WhenU.com does NOT know the identity of individual users of the software 2) As the user surfs the Internet, URLS visited by the user (i.e. the user's "clickstream data") are NOT transmitted to WhenU.com or any third party server 3) WhenU.com does NOT assemble personally-identifiable browsing profiles of users 4) WhenU.com does NOT assemble anonymous machine-identifiable browsing profiles of individual users 5) WhenU.com does NOT track which ads and offers are seen or clicked on by individual machines - analysis and tracking is done in the aggregate Each individual desktop is assigned anonymous, unique machine IDs. These machine IDs are used ONLY to enable WhenU.com to count unique, active desktops in the network. The machine IDs are NOT used to determine which ads to serve individual users or to create browsing profiles of users. When ads are displayed by the software, impressions and clickthroughs are reported to WhenU.com servers. To protect user privacy and prevent WhenU.com or any third party from assembling user profiles, the unique machine IDs are NOT included in the impression and clickthrough reports sent by the desktop to WhenU.com servers. WhenU.com may update privacy statements for the SaveNow software at any time. A current version of the SaveNow privacy statement is available at www.whenu.com/about_savenow.html WhenUSearch Toolbar By downloading the WhenUSearch Toolbar software ("the Toolbar"), you give permission to WhenU.com ("WhenU") to display relevant contextual information and offers. The Toolbar selects which ads and offers to show you based on several factors, including: which Web pages you visit, search terms you use while searching online, and content of the Web pages you view. The Toolbar displays contextual ads and offers in the form of rotating text links accessible from within the application. The Toolbar protects your privacy by uploading a database of content in small chunks to your desktop and then determining on your desktop whether to retrieve information from WhenU or third-party servers. To protect your privacy, the same database of content is sent to all desktops. Decisions regarding which advertising and offers to retrieve are processed on your computer desktop. In this way, WhenU is able to deliver to you relevant coupons, information and advertisements without collecting all of your browsing activity and without establishing any profile about you (even anonymously) on WhenU servers. Your privacy is also protected in the following manner: 1) Your personally-identifiable information is not required in order to use the Toolbar. WhenU does not know your individual identity and does not attempt to discern it in any way. 2) As you surf the Internet, your "clickstream data" (i.e. a log of all the sites you visit) is not transmitted to WhenU or any third party server. 3) WhenU does not assemble any personally-identifiable browsing profiles of you or your individual machine. 4) WhenU does not assemble any anonymous machine-identifiable browsing profile of you or your machine. 5) WhenU does not track which ads and offers you see as an individual user - all of our analysis and tracking of ads is done in the aggregate. The Toolbar does send back a limited amount of information from your desktop in order to count the number of users in our network and optimize the performance and relevancy of the ads. For example, whenever an offer is displayed to you in the Toolbar and whenever you click on such an offer, the Toolbar sends WhenU a communication that includes information about what caused the ad to appear, such as the keyword content of the webpage you were viewing, the search terms you entered or the web page you were viewing before you saw or clicked on a particular ad. WhenU has intentionally designed these communications back to WhenU to be highly protective of user privacy, in the following ways: (a) Each individual desktop is assigned an anonymous, unique machine ID. This machine ID is used only to enable WhenU to count unique, active desktops in the network. The machine ID is not used to determine which ads to serve individual users or to create browsing profiles of users. (b) When ads are requested and/or displayed by the Toolbar, impressions and click-throughs, including the factor (e.g., such as the URL, the keyword, or the search term, or some combination thereof) that caused the ad to be displayed are reported to WhenU. To protect your privacy and prevent WhenU or any third party from assembling individual user profiles or knowing which websites you visit, your unique machine ID is intentionally excluded from the limited communications sent back to WhenU that may include a URL or such other browsing-specific information. The Toolbar does not place any cookies on your desktop. It is possible that a third party advertising on our network might place a cookie on your desktop. If you wish to opt-out from third party cookies, please click on the following link and follow the instructions: http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp WhenU.com may update its privacy policy for the software at any time. WhenU is committed to serving highly relevant, contextual coupons and offers, while still providing consumers with industry-leading privacy protection. More information about the software is available here, or for any further questions about our privacy policy please email privacy@whenumail.com. " |
Detection and Removal |
Automatic Removal: |
 PestPatrol detects this.
PestPatrol removes this.
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Manual Removal: |
Follow these steps to remove WhenUSearch from your machine. Begin by backing up your registry and your system, and/or setting a Restore Point, to prevent trouble if you make a mistake. |
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Stop Running Processes:
Kill these running processes with Task Manager:
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Remove AutoRun Reference:
Go To the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
If you find the value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run\whenusearch, delete it and reboot the machine immediately.
If you find the value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run\whenusearchwhse, delete it and reboot the machine immediately.
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Unregister DLLs:
Unregister these DLLs with Regsvr32, then reboot:
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Clean Registry:
Remove these registry items (if present) with RegEdit:
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Remove Files:
Remove these files (if present) with Windows Explorer:
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Remove Directories:
Remove these directories (if present) with Windows Explorer:
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Restore Settings:
After following the instructions above, you will still need to restore your original settings and prevent this from happening again. Here''s how.
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Research |
File Analyses: |
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More Info: |
AllTheWeb, AltaVista, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, Google, HotBot, Lycos, LookSmart, MSN, Yahoo! |
Research By: |
PestPatrol's Pest Research Center |
Last Revised: |
April 07, 2005 |