PickOfTheWeb is a spyware toolbar developed by WhenU and Visicom Media.  It was first sighted on April 15 of 2005.  It can be downloaded by the user, by ActiveX drive-by download, or it can be bundled with other software.

It lures you into downloading it by promising to give you a free DVD of your choice if you do it.  You will never receive a DVD from this company.  It also comes bundled with WhenU’s spyware programs SaveNow and ClockSync.

PickOfTheWeb’s End License User Agreement has several draconic clauses.  From the EULA: “By installing this software product will monitor your traffic patterns on the Internet (…) to select and deliver Targeted Advertising (…) Some of the personally identifiable information that are presently collected and stored in a personal profile are: your company-specific ID (the “ID”), (…) information about the web pages that you visit – (…) Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”), time spent at a particular website, transaction activity, website entry and exit patterns, as well as the products and information that you view at the website, running history of special offers and advertising delivered by the software product, and your various responses to same and standard web log information and system settings, such as your IP addresses, browser type and versions, screen resolution, time zone selected and the version numbers of some of the software programs installed on your personal computer etc.”

In short, the big question is, what is this program NOT going to know about you?
Obviously from the EULA, PickOfTheWeb is spyware and is particularly aggressive that way.  Once it gathers all the information mentioned in the EULA, and possibly more, it uploads it to a remote server to process for targeted pop-up ads.

All the activity that PickOfTheWeb does on your computer hogs your resources.  It can cause browser speed to slow down, and it can even cause your browser to crash.  With all the information it collects from you and all the difficulties it causes, why would you want to keep it on your computer?

You should remove PickOfTheWeb from your computer using a trusted antispyware program such as SpyZooka.

Also Known As:
Pick Of The Web, Adware.EZToolbar, PickOfTheWeb Toolbar, EZ-Toolbar

Spyware Type:  Toolbar

Associated Files:
saveinstcm.exe, C:\Program Files\dynamic toolbar\potwbar\,
C:\Documents and Settings\User\Desktop\potwbar\potwbar\, Downloaded Program Files\potwbar.dll.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID
\{4E7BD74F-2B8D-469E-C0FF-FD7BA09AAA7D}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\potwbar.POTWBAR
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Uninstall\POTWBAR
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
\Browser Helper Objects\{4E7BD74F-2B8D-469E-C0FF-FD7BA09AAA7D}
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Dynamic Toolbar\POTWBAR
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Code Store Database
\Distribution Units\{4E7BD74F-2B8D-469E-C0FF-FD7BA09AAA7D}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar “{4E7BD74F-2B8D-469E-C0FF-FD7BA09AAA7D}” = “00”