OurWorld Toolbar

Posted: August 15, 2013

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	70

First Seen:	August 15, 2013
Last Seen:	March 31, 2022
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The OurWorld Toolbar is a new member of the already-bloated Conduit family of browser add-ons, a group of Potentially Unwanted Programs that hijack your homepage and search engine. Since the OurWorld Toolbar does provide some minor features related to the OurWorld gaming application, the OurWorld Toolbar isn't classified as malicious software; however, many of the OurWorld Toolbar's changes to your browser are unnecessary and may hinder the quality of your Web-browsing experience. Based on previously acquired familiarity with Conduit toolbars, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers continue to recommend removing OurWorld Toolbar with appropriate anti-malware tools – unless, of course, you're completely certain that you want the OurWorld Toolbar on your computer and are willing to put up with its browser changes.

Why Your World Turns into Conduit's World with the OurWorld Toolbar

The OurWorld Toolbar claims to be used to enhance your Web-browsing experience in various ways, such as providing generic update features along with OurWorld gaming accessibility. However, the OurWorld Toolbar's central 'features' actually are the same as those of other Conduit toolbars: resetting your homepage and your default search engine to Conduit-affiliated websites. In the process of doing this, the OurWorld Toolbar bypasses your default browser's settings. You cannot reverse these browser changes without removing the OurWorld Toolbar.

Conduit websites are not noted for providing malicious or dangerous content, but SpywareRemove.com malware experts do warn that they are likely to provide search results that include advertisements and other irrelevant links. Even though the OurWorld Toolbar's browser redirects are not in immediate danger of harming your computer, they aren't justifiable components of a game-specific toolbar and don't benefit your computer in any way. Hence, SpywareRemove.com malware experts categorize the OurWorld Toolbar as a Potentially Unwanted Program or PUP: a program that you most likely will want to remove even though the OurWorld Toolbar isn't designed with malicious intent.

Getting Your Browser's World Back in a No-Conduit Condition

Overall, the OurWorld Toolbar is semi-unique for pairing itself with a specific gaming program, but otherwise is very similar to other Conduit toolbars like the iWin Toolbar, the Freecause Toolbar, the Search Assistant WebSearch, the From Doc to Pdf Toolbar, the FreemakeTB Toolbar, the Delta Search Toolbar and the DivX Browser Bar. Although the OurWorld Toolbar's presence isn't quite equivalent to a malware infection, SpywareRemove.com malware research team still recommends the use of anti-malware utilities for deleting the OurWorld Toolbar, so as to ensure the total removal of all of its browser changes.

It's rare for browser toolbars or add-ons that redirect your browser to non-beneficial sites without your consent to be installed alone. The OurWorld Toolbar and its fellows usually are distributed through packages with other programs – such as, conveniently, the OurWorld game – that may or may not allow you to install the primary application without also installing the toolbar.

Technical Details

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

HKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\OurWorld_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\OurWorld_RASMANCS