Popular Screensavers
What is Popular Screensavers?
This is a web browser extension/toolbar that will modify the user's home page and search provider to Ask.com.
About (from Mindspark Interactive Network)
By downloading the Toolbar, you will be installing a toolbar in your Internet browser (which may include both your active browser and any other compatible Internet browser(s) resident on your computer), and any supported email functions and/or chat functions with one or more of the following features provided by Mindsp... Read more
Overview
Popular Screensavers is a program developed by Mindspark Interactive Network. Upon installation, it defines an auto-start registry entry which allows the program run on each boot for the user which installed it. The main program executable is p5svc.exe. A vast majority of those who have this installed end up removing it just after a couple weeks. The software installer includes 10 files and is usually about 2.7 MB (2,827,647 bytes). In comparison to the total number of users, most PCs are running the OS Windows 7 (SP1) as well as Windows 10. While about 40% of users of Popular Screensavers come from the United States, it is also popular in Germany and India.
- Possible malware installed by this program
- Automatically starts with Windows
- Loads into the web browser
- May modify the web browser's home page
- Many experts agree, if you don't use it you should remove it!
Warning, multiple anti-virus scanners have detected possible malware in Popular Screensavers.
| p5svc.exe (32dfcd93d3d468d2e75fd330812480de) has been flagged by the following 4 scanners: |
| Anti-Virus software | Version | Detection |
| avast! |
2014.9-140422 |
Win32:Mindspark-A [PUP] |
| AVG |
2015.0.3497 |
Zango |
| Bkav FE |
1.3.0.4923 |
W32.Clodfed.Trojan |
| VIPRE Antivirus |
25784 |
MyWebSearch.J (v) (not malicious) |
| NPp5Stub.dll (df2b8cf613b10039bc2a8557642ca041) has been flagged by the following 9 scanners: |
| Anti-Virus software | Software version | Detection |
| Antiy-AVL |
2.0.3.7 |
WebToolbar/Win32.MyWebSearch |
| avast! |
8.0.1489.320 |
Win32:Mindspark-A [PUP] |
| AVG |
13.0.0.3169 |
Zango |
| Bkav FE |
1.3.0.4613 |
W32.Clod770.Trojan.9c06 |
| CMC Antivirus |
1.1.0.977 |
WebToolbar.Win32.MyWebSearch!O |
| Kaspersky |
9.0.0.837 |
not-a-virus:WebToolbar.Win32.MyWebSearch.rn |
| Kingsoft AntiVirus |
2013.04.09.267 |
Win32.Troj.MyWebSearch.rn.(kcloud) |
| Rising Antivirus |
25.0.0.11 |
PE:Malware.MyWebSearch!6.3F3 |
| VIPRE Antivirus |
24740 |
MyWebSearch.J (v) (not malicious) |
| p5ScrCtr.dll (da4d621f7913a241945e046d3ae35326) has been flagged by the following 5 scanners: |
| Anti-Virus software | Software version | Detection |
| avast! |
8.0.1489.320 |
Win32:Mindspark-A [PUP] |
| AVG |
13.0.0.3169 |
Zango |
| Clam AntiVirus |
0.97.3 |
Adware.Mywebsearch-6 |
| ESET-NOD32 |
9190 |
a variant of Win32/Toolbar.MyWebSearch.P |
| VIPRE Antivirus |
24740 |
MyWebSearch.J (v) (not malicious) |
View all 18 all detections
Program details
URL: www.mindspark.com
Installation folder: C:\Program Files\PopularScreensavers
Uninstaller: "C:\Program Files\PopularScreensavers\uninstall.exe" "/C:C:\Program Files\PopularScreensavers\Uninstall\uninstall.xml"
Estimated size: 2.7 MB
Files installed by Popular Screensavers
| Program executable: | p5svc.exe (Malware detected) |
| Name: | Popular Screen Savers |
| Path: | C:\Program Files\PopularScreensavers\p5svc.exe |
| MD5: | 32dfcd93d3d468d2e75fd330812480de |
Additional files:
-
(Malware detected) NPp5Stub.dll (by popularscreensavers.com) - Popular Screensavers Plugin Stub (Popular Screensavers Plugin Stub for 32-bit Windows)
-
p5Plugin.dll (by popularscreensavers.com) - Popular Screensavers Plugin (Popular Screensavers Plugin for 32-bit Windows)
-
uninstall.exe (by Indigo Rose) - Setup Factory Runtime (Setup Application)
-
p5cjpeg.dll - Popular Screensavers (JPEG Conversion DLL)
-
p5Html.dll - Popular Screensavers Html Player
-
p5MedInt.exe - Run a Popular Screensavers DLL as an App
-
(Malware detected) p5ScrCtr.dll (by FunWebProducts.com) - Popular Screensavers Tools
-
lua5.1.dll
-
p5wphook.dll
Behaviors exhibited
Google Chrome Plugin
- NPp5Stub.dll is loaded in the Google Chrome web browser as 'NPp5Stub.dll'.
Mozilla Plugin
- NPp5Stub.dll is loaded into Mozilla Firefox under the product name '@popularscreensavers.com/Plugin' with a plugin key of '@popularscreensavers.com/Plugin' for all users of the PC.
Startup File (User Run)
- p5ScrCtr.dll is loaded in the current user (HKCU) registry as an auto-starting executable named 'p5PopularScreensaversWallpaper' and executes as rundll32 C:\Program Files2\POPULA~1\p5ScrCtr.dll,LES.
How do I remove Popular Screensavers?
You can uninstall Popular Screensavers from your computer by using the Add/Remove Program feature in the Window's Control Panel.
- On the Start menu (for Windows 8, right-click the screen's bottom-left corner), click Control Panel, and then, under Programs, do one of the following:
- Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall a Program.
- Windows XP: Click Add or Remove Programs.
- When you find the program Popular Screensavers, click it, and then do one of the following:
- Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall.
- Windows XP: Click the Remove or Change/Remove tab (to the right of the program).
- Follow the prompts. A progress bar shows you how long it will take to remove Popular Screensavers.
- If for some reason uninstallation fails, please install Microsoft's uninstall fixer utility which will help fix problems with programs that can't be uninstalled at support.microsoft.com.
How do I reset my web browser?
If your web browser homepage and search settings have been modfied by Popular Screensavers you can restore them to their previous default settings.
Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Open Internet Explorer and click the Tools button, and then click Internet options.
- Click the Advanced tab, and then click Reset. Select the Delete personal settings check box if you would also like to remove search providers, Accelerators and home pages. When Internet Explorer finishes applying default settings, click Close, and then click OK.
- The changes will take effect the next time you open IE.
Mozilla Firefox
- At the top of the Firefox window, click the Firefox button, go over to the Help sub-menu and select Troubleshooting Information.
- To continue, click Reset Firefox in the confirmation window that opens. It will close and be reset.
- When it's done, a window will list the information that was imported. Click Finish and Firefox will open.
Google Chrome
- Open Chrome and click the Chrome menu on the browser toolbar.
- Select Settings. In the "Search" section, click Manage search engine. Check if (Default) is displayed next to your preferred search engine. If not, mouse over it and click Make default. Mouse over any other suspicious search engine entries that are not familiar and click X to remove them.
- When the "Show Home button" checkbox is selected, a web address appears below it. If you want the Homepage button to open up a different webpage, click Change to enter a link.
- Restart Google Chrome.
OS VERSIONS
Win 7 (SP1) 58%
Win Vista (SP1) 1%
|
|
WHEN IT STARTS
Auto-starting? Yes
(Found in the run registry)
|
|
USER ACTIONS
 |
Uninstall it 69%
Keep it 31%
|
|
Windows
Which Windows OS versions does it run on?
| Windows 7 |
66.04% |
|
| Windows 10 |
23.58% |
|
| Windows Vista |
6.60% |
|
| Windows XP |
3.77% |
|
Which OS releases does it run on? |
| Windows 7 Ultimate |
29.81% |
|
| Windows 7 Home Premium |
23.08% |
|
| Windows 8.1 |
13.46% |
|
| Windows 7 Professional |
11.54% |
|
| Windows Vista Home Premiu... |
4.81% |
|
| Windows 8.1 Pro |
3.85% |
|
Geography
40.16% of installs come from the United States
Which countries install it?
| United States |
40.16% |
| Germany |
11.48% |
| India |
5.74% |
| IQ |
5.74% |
| Canada |
3.28% |
| DZ |
2.46% |
| Belgium |
1.64% |
| BG |
1.64% |
| Ecuador |
1.64% |
| United Kingdom |
1.64% |
| Indonesia |
1.64% |
| Jamaica |
1.64% |
| Malaysia |
1.64% |
| Philippines |
1.64% |
PC manufacturers
What PC manufacturers (OEMs) have it installed?
| Hewlett-Packard |
35.90% |
|
| Acer |
26.92% |
|
| Dell |
17.95% |
|
| Lenovo |
6.41% |
|
| ASUS |
2.56% |
|
| Intel |
2.56% |
|
| Samsung |
2.56% |
|
| Alienware |
1.28% |
|
| GIGABYTE |
1.28% |
|
| Gateway |
1.28% |
|
| American Megatrends |
1.28% |
|
Common models |
| HP Pavilion g6 Notebook P... |
3.41% |
|
| Dell Inspiron N5050 |
2.27% |
|
| HP 2000 Notebook PC |
2.27% |
|
| LENOVO HuronRiver Platfor... |
2.27% |
|
| Dell Studio XPS 1645 |
2.27% |
|
| Dell OptiPlex 760 |
1.14% |
|
About Mindspark Interactive Network
Mindspark is a business unit of IAC that focuses on interactive products and web portals and operates IAC's interactive products and web portals such as Life123, Myway.
Publisher URL: www.mindspark.com