How to Remove a Redirect Virus from Chrome/Firefox/IE

Suddenly a Redirect virus took over your homepage and you cannot remove it.

If you’re reading this, it’s safe to assume you’re experiencing the displeasure of dealing with a redirect infection. These types of cyber threats are unreliable, invasive, and highly harmful. They bombard you with an array of issues on a daily basis, and can potentially damage your system beyond repair. That’s right. Their very presence on your computer, if not treated, can lead to The Blue Screen of Death. To not treat the issue, a.k.a. find and delete the infection as soon as possible, is to risk coming face to face with the dreaded blue. To be fair, the chances of that occurring are rather slim. But since when does ‘slim’ equal ‘non-existent?’ Even if the odd of the blue taking over your screen are minuscule, are you prepared to take them? Especially, considering that how that’s not the only problems, you’ll be forced to deal with, courtesy of the infection. Usually, if your browser suddenly starts to get redirected to unfamiliar websites, you’re dealing with some potentially unwanted program that’s causing that to happen. It can be a hijacker or adware, both of which spell out trouble. To do nothing while a PUP wreaks havoc on your system is ludicrous. Do yourself a favor, and as soon as you realize you’re dealing with a redirect infection, find its hiding spot and delete it! The sooner you remove it, the better. You’ll save yourself an entire myriad of grievances, and earn the gratitude of your future self. If you do nothing and pretend like everything is well, you won’t like the outcome of your inaction. You’ll be stuck dealing with issues upon issues on a daily basis. Your system will most likely get bombarded with more unwanted malware and, to top it all off, your privacy will be compromised as such PUPs are programmed to target your personal and financial information. After infiltration, they’re designed to spy on you and steal data, which they then send to the third parties that published them. Do you think anything positive will derive from strangers with access to your private life? Hardly. Do yourself a favor, and don’t risk it. Locate and delete the nasty program, you’re stuck with, the first chance you get.

How did I get infected?

Such infections cannot just appear on your computer. Oh, no. These types of programs are required to ask for permission before they install themselves, and unless you comply, they cannot get in. And, since you’re in your current predicament, that can only mean that the tool asked, and you complied. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be in this mess. However, don’t think the tool openly comes out and ask you. It doesn’t. It employs slyness and subtlety and asks you quite sneakily. It uses the old but gold methods of infiltration to trick you into permitting its install, and slither in undetected. But how can you approve the installment of a program, and not know it? Well, it’s rather straightforward. More often than not, the tool manages to gain entry by pretending to be a fake update. For example, you may be entirely convinced you’re updating your Adobe Flash Player or Java while, in actuality, you’ll be giving the green light to malware. That’s one of the most common means of invasion, but certainly not the only one. The PUP can also hitch a ride with freeware, corrupted links or sites, or spam email attachments. To prevent it from succeeding and calling your PC ‘home,’ be more careful! Don’t give into naivety, haste, and distraction and always do your due diligence. Infections prey on carelessness. So, don’t provide it. Caution is your friend as even a little extra attention can save you lots of unpleasantness.

Why is this dangerous?

As was already mentioned, browser redirect viruses are usually caused by adware or hijacker, lurking somewhere on your computer. Either way, you’re in for a bad time. Both of these infections lead to a bunch of quite unpleasant repercussions, following their appearance, most of which overlap. Don’t underestimate the trouble you’re in. If you suddenly find your browser keeps showing you a certain page, and redirecting you to it every single time you use it, that’s a sign! It’s a warning, and you’d do best to act on it immediately. It’s not acceptable to get redirected to an unknown page all of a sudden. It’s a clear indication that your system is no longer infection-free. And, you can be sure that your predicament will only worsen with time unless you locate and remove the threat, you’re faced with. For example, apart from having to endure endless redirects, you’ll also have to put up with a never-ending stream of pop-up advertisements. And, they’ll be just as obnoxious and unreliable as the page or pages, you’ll be redirected to. The ads will show up each time you try to browse the web, and because that’s when the redirects occur, as well, the combination of the two leads to frequent system crashes and a slower PC performance. Not only will this meddling with your browsing put the limits of your patience to the test, but they also hide a pretty severe issue – they pose a malware risk. Yes, the ads are highly unreliable and bundled with various malicious tools, just waiting to invade your system. And, they do so with your help. Each time you press a pop-up, by accident or choice, you unknowingly agree to install the cyber threats, it’s hiding. Do NOT click on these deceitful, infection-filled ads! But as was already stated, even the malware risk pales in comparison to the privacy issue. The PUP, residing on your computer, exposes you to a severe security threat. It’s designed to spy on you from the second it settles on your system, keep track of your browsing, and catalog your every online move. When it determines it has enough data from you, it sends it to the unknown third parties that support it, who can use it as the wish. Don’t hand your personal and financial details to strangers with agendas! Protect yourself and your system, and find and delete the infection, which is redirecting you.

How to Remove a Redirect Virus

If you perform exactly the steps below you should be able to remove the Redirect infection. Please, follow the procedures in the exact order. Please, consider to print this guide or have another computer at your disposal. You will NOT need any USB sticks or CDs.

The Redirect virus is specifically designed to make money. It generates web traffic, collects sales leads for other dubious sites, and will display advertisements and sponsored links within your web browser.

STEP 1: Uninstall the Redirect virus from Add\Remove Programs

STEP 2: Clean the Redirect virus from Chrome Firefox or Internet Explorer

STEP 3: Permanently Remove the Redirect virus leftovers from the System

STEP 1 : Uninstall the Redirect virus from your computer

Simultaneously press the Windows Logo Button and then “R” to open the Run Command Window

 

Type “regedit”

 

navigate to HKCU\software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Modify the string with a value data and set it to google.com for example.

STEP 2 : Remove the Redirect virus from Chrome, Firefox and IE

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Redirect virus by clicking on the little recycle bin
• Reset Google Chrome by Deleting the current user to make sure nothing is left behind

• Open Mozilla Firefox

• Press simultaneously Ctrl+Shift+A
• Disable the unwanted Extension
• Go to Help
• Then Troubleshoot information
• Click on Reset Firefox

• Open Internet Explorer

• On the Upper Right Corner Click on the Gear Icon
• Click on Internet options
• go to Toolbars and Extensions and disable the unknown extensions
• Select the Advanced tab and click on Reset

• Restart Internet Explorer

How to Permanently Remove a Redirect virus (automatic) Removal Guide

To make sure manual removal is successful, we recommend to use a free scanner of any professional antimalware program to identify possible registry leftovers or temporary files.