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Parasite: 2020Search

This record last updated Tue Sep 20 2005 00:34:14

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the overwhelming extent of this problem and the unbelievable volume of email we have received, we regret that we cannot respond to questions about browser parasites at this time. If you have attempted to contact us about this parasite please accept our apology for not responding. "Thank you's" are always appreciated ;-)

Description

2020Search is a search-page hijacker pointed at popuptoast.com, and toolbar (based on Visicom Media’s ‘Dynamic Toolbar’ software), distributed by 2020search.com.

2020Search is operated by Walnut Ventures Inc (walnut-ventures.com), who also operate the ShopNav parasite.

Distribution

Unclear, believed to be drive-by installed on pop-ups.

The 2020Search installer also bundles the ShopNav/SN parasite.

What it does

Advertising

No.

Privacy violation

No.

Security issues

Yes. The ‘downloader’ ActiveX control used to install 2020Search can be used by a web page to silently install software from the 2020search.com server.

Stability problems

None known.

Removal

There may be two entries in the Control Panel’s Add/Remove Programs feature, ‘2020Search’ and ‘Search 2020’. Both work the same, removing the toolbar but leaving the installer and search page settings.

To remove the installer control, open the Windows folder, open the ‘Downloaded Program Files’ folder inside it and delete ‘Downloader class’. To restore search settings, open Internet Options, click the ‘Programs’ tab and click the ‘Reset Web Settings’ button.

After removal a superfluous entry that does nothing may be left in the Add/Remove Programs list. To clean this up you can open the registry (Start->Run->regedit), find the key ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall’ and delete the subkey ‘2020SEARCHTB’. You can also delete the keys ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\2020Installation’ and ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Dynamic Toolbar\2020SEARCH2’ if you wish.

Partial removal

If the installer has not fully downloaded the 2020Search software, you may be left with an installer called ‘mssvr.exe’ running on every startup and no removal option. In this case, open the registry (Start->Run->regedit), find the key ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run’ and delete the ‘Mssvr’ entry. Then delete the ‘Downloader class’ as above.