180 Search Assistant

Overview

180 Search Assistant displays targeted web sites in new browser windows, labeled with "Brought to you by the 180search Assistant".

The vendor's description about advertising: "By installing 180search Assistant, you grant permission for 180solutions to periodically display targeted websites, to collect certain information, including the websites you visit while connected to the Internet, and to use that information as described herein. 180solutions will not use any of the information 180search Assistant collects to identify you personally. 180search Assistant. The 180search Assistant software ("180search Assistant") is a permission based search assistant application that provides access to a wide range of websites, applications and information. 180search Assistant will periodically direct you to our sponsors' websites. The information that 180solutions collects under this privacy policy allows 180search Assistant to provide you with content and advertising that is targeted to your interests."

180 Search Assistant is according to the vendor bundled with other software products: "All of our third-party distributors are required to clearly label that our programs are bundled with their products and to provide consumers with the option to agree to the licensing agreement before they install it. We police distributors to ensure our disclosure rules are adhered to and we prohibit "drive-by" or "silent" installations. Our code of conduct requires that the user is fully aware of and agrees to our End User License Agreement (EULA)."

180 Search Assistant has been installed with little notice along with ABC Scrabble.

Classification

Adware
Bundled software

Files

saishook.dll, sac.exe, saap.exe, 180ax.exe, sau.exe, sais.exe, salm.exe

If you have any of the files related to 180 Search Assistant on your system, please send them for additional analysis. Generally, I have only analysed a few versions for each software component listed at this web site. With your help I will be able to look at both old and more recent versions of the 180 Search Assistant software. Thank you very much for your time!

Alias

PMS/180Solutions.A.1 [AntiVir], Win32:Trojan-gen [Avast], Adware.Ncase.D, Adware.Searchassist.C [BitDefender], Trojan.Spy.Ncase-2 [ClamAV], Adware.nCase [Dr.Web], W32/Salm.A@bd, W32/Dyfuca.DM@dl [F-Prot Antivirus], Adware/180Solutions, Download/180Solutions [Fortinet], AdWare.180Solutions [Kaspersky Anti-Virus], .Ncase180 [mks_vir], W32/Ncase.D, W32/Dyfuca.DG [Norman Virus Control]

Log references

Log 1259

Vendor

180searchassistant.com whois

Detection

Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner detects 180 Search Assistant. Bazooka is freeware and detects spyware, adware, foistware, trojan horses, viruses, worms and other potentially unwanted applications. Read more »

Uninstall procedure

Uninstall 180 Search Assistant from "Add/Remove Programs" in the Windows® Control Panel.

Uninstall 180 Search Assistant with FreeFixer

I'm working on a general purpose tool for removing unwanted software. The tool is called FreeFixer and can help you remove unwanted Browser Helper Objects, Internet Explorer toolbars and software that starts automatically when you reboot your computer, so it can offer some assistance while uninstalling 180 Search Assistant. The manual removal instructions listed below will help you to identify what to delete with FreeFixer.

Read more about FreeFixer.

Manual removal

Please follow the instructions below if you would like to remove 180 Search Assistant manually. Please notice that you must follow the instructions very carefully and delete everything that is mentioned. In most cases the removal will fail if one single item is not deleted. If 180 Search Assistant remains on your system after stepping through the removal instructions, please double-check by stepping through them again.

1. Start the registry editor. This is done by clicking Start then Run. (The Run dialog will appear.) Type regedit and click OK. (The registry editor will open.)
2. Browse to the key:
   'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Run'
3. In the right pane, delete the values called 'sac', 'sau', 'saap', '180ax', 'sais' and 'salm', if they exists.
4. Delete 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Classes \ CLSID \ {21B4ACC4-8874-4AEC-AEAC-F567A249B4D4}\', if it exists.
5. Delete 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Browser Helper Objects \ {21B4ACC4-8874-4AEC-AEAC-F567A249B4D4}\', if it exists.
6. Exit the registry editor.
7. Restart your computer.
8. Start Windows Explorer and delete:
   c:\temp\salm.exe
   c:\temp\fleok\
   %ProgramsDir%\180solutions\
   %ProgramsDir%\180search assistant\
   %ProgramsDir%\180searchassistant\
   %WinDir%\180ax.exe
   %WinDir%\temp\180ax.exe
   Note: %ProgramsDir% is a variable (?). By default, this is C:\Program Files.
   Note: %WinDir% is a variable (?). By default, this is C:\Windows (Windows 95/98/Me/XP) or C:\WINNT (Windows NT/2000).

Problems uninstalling? Click here.

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Contact information for 180 Search Assistant's vendor

In order to provide correct, accurate and updated information about 180 Search Assistant I encourage the vendor to contact me if any part of this write-up needs a revision.