Browser hijacking in mail.ru agent

Recently, when checking the next design in my adored IE, I typed the address with an error and was surprised to find that the donkey found the phrase searched in the address bar in the search from mail.ru! There was something to be surprised about, since Google was set by default by Google and until recently (as well as according to the documentation on IE itself) and typing a phrase unlike an address led to a search for this phrase in the search engine I specified. Okay, I have Internet Explorer of the eighth version, where there is not only the address bar, but also a search field, so it's not so scary, but if I were a user of IE6 (mail.ru main audience), then this could be a problem, since there is no separate search field there, and the address bar is “captured” by mail.ru.


It turns out that this started after the installation of the mail.ru agent. Finally, I became convinced of this by resetting the donkey’s settings using Spybot Search & Destroy, removing the magic and installing it again, this time while running the System Settings Protector in the Spybot bundle, which monitors suspicious changes in the registry and makes it possible to disable them in the manner firewall I made sure three times that in the mail.ru agent installer I removed all possible checkboxes that required installing their toolbar, home page, search and other spyware into the browser and generally directly into my brain. But during the installation, I still saw the Spybot window, which honestly detected the installer’s attempt to change the browser settings. Many indignant at this behavior mail.ru, wrote in their technical support. The answer of technical support is given below, my letter is quoted in the same place.

Hello.
')
Yes indeed such a situation takes place if you
you install the Agent, you agree to its rules
of use.

You wrote on August 24, 2008, 0:47:19:

> Browser: Opera / 9.52 (Windows NT 6.0; U; ru)
> IP: 89.223.47.21

> Why is the mail.ru agent aggressively setting itself in IE, and doing
> default search? I mean that search in the address bar
> and is used if in the address bar to type not an address, but a phrase.
> Installing the agent twice made sure that all checkboxes are cleared
> imposing search, home page and stuff. And still in the menu
> IE there is such an item, and the address bar is looking for in mail.ru.

But I didn’t search for any license, nor did I find it. Both the Magnet's home page and its installer try to establish themselves as soon as possible, without mentioning the license at all, which is quite different from the others, which require you to agree to the license before you can install anything. I wrote a response to the previous letter, where I mentioned the absence of a license, and received an enchanting answer:

Dear user, our project is optimized mainly for work.
with Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. When using other
browsers or versions may have problems. If you want to use
another browser, try changing its settings, for this you need
contact your technical support representative
provide, because We do not provide support for these issues.

We remind you that in Internet Explorer 6, 7 versions are all
working correctly and correctly displayed. You can try
install the specified browser and after restarting the computer
try again.

You wrote on August 27, 2008 10:53:04 AM:

> Where do I read these "rules of use"? Why neither
> when installing the program, nor when I download it
> show no rules and license agreements and no
> ask if the future victim of “legitimate spyware” agrees
> with these rules?

Well, yes, of course, it is Internet Explorer that the mail.ru agent is capturing. Glory to the gods, although other browsers do not touch.