AutoStartup

Overview

AutoStartup, or Autostarter from the main file's internal name, monitors which web pages you visit, how long you stay on them, your software usage pattern, sends your zip code to the controlling server and open pop-up windows.

This is what the vendor's End User License Agreement says about the software: AutoStartup collects certain types of non-personally identifiable information about individuals who are served ads by the Software. This information may include your Internet protocol (IP) address, your domain, your operating system, your browser version, type and language and your Internet Service Provider. Advertisements may be displayed of advertisers who pay a fee to AutoStartup and you may be provided with and/or redirected to content of other parties and/or links to other third party websites or content or offered the opportunity to download Software from third party Software vendors. Source

The following is a whois lookup on the vendor's domain name:
Domain Name: AVATARRESOURCES.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://www.opensrs.org
Name Server: NS1.HOSTSLTD.COM
Name Server: NS2.HOSTSLTD.COM
Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
Updated Date: 01-sep-2003
Creation Date: 01-sep-2003
Expiration Date: 01-sep-2004

WENKSDISDKJEILSOW.COM is also related to AutoStartup.

AutoStartup is bundled with Grokster 1.7 and is mentioned in the EULA.

Classification

Adware

Files

AST.exe, ib.exe, unast.exe, ac.aut

If you have any of the files related to AutoStartup 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 AutoStartup software. Thank you very much for your time!

Log references

Log 12

Vendor

Avatar Resources, Inc, avatarresources.com, whois

End User License Agreement

2004-01-15

Privacy policy

2003-01-15

Detection

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

Uninstall procedure

Uninstall AutoStartup from "Add/Remove Programs" in the Windows® Control Panel. Look for entries called 'AST'.

Uninstall AutoStartup 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 AutoStartup. 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 AutoStartup 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 AutoStartup 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 'AST' and 'AStart', if they exists. Notice that the values should look exactly like described here, taking lower- and upper-case letters into account.
4. Exit the registry editor.
5. Restart your computer.
6. Start Windows Explorer and delete:
   %WinDir%\ac.aut
   %WinDir%\ib.exe
   %WinDir%\unast.exe
   %WinDir%\AST.EXE
   %SystemDir%\AST.EXE
   Note: %WinDir% is a variable (?). By default, this is C:\Windows (Windows 95/98/Me/XP) or C:\WINNT (Windows NT/2000).
   Note: %SystemDir% is a variable (?). By default, this is C:\Windows\System (Windows 95/98/Me), C:\WINNT\System32 (Windows NT/2000), or C:\Windows\System32 (Windows XP).

Problems uninstalling? Click here.

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Contact information for AutoStartup's vendor

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