Chrome Search Club “Virus” Removal

Can’t Remove Chrome Search Club hijacker virus? This page includes detailed Chrome Search Club Removal instructions!

Did you set the Chrome Search Club page as your new homepage or did it appear by itself? In any case, you are in trouble. The Chrome Search Club website is the face of a nasty malware. Somewhere on your computer, a browser hijacker is lurking. The Chrome Search Club hijacker is a malicious ad-generating program. It is not a full-fledged virus. The malware is programmed to generate revenue via pay-per-click mechanism. Basically, when you click on a commercial provided by the hijacker, its owners will get paid. The problem is, you won’t click on just any adverts, will you? The crooks have found a simple solution. Their creation spies on your online activities and uses the collected data as a base for better ad-targeting. Thus, if you enter “sneakers” into some search engine, you will be presented with ads for sports shoes. And believe us, with the Chrome Search Club hijacker on board, you will see a lot of adverts. This parasite injects various ads on every website you open. It redirects your web traffic to sponsored pages and opens pop-ups. If you manage to resist the advertisements, the hijacker will force you to watch video commercials. The Chrome Search Club hijacker is extremely intrusive. It can ruin your browsing experience in seconds. It is a constant pain in the neck that is hard to be tolerated. And it shouldn’t. The more time it spends on your computer, the more aggressive will it become. It may cause both your browser and OS to freeze and crash. Do not put up with this situation. Delete the hijacker now!

How did I get infected with?

To reach its victims, the Chrome Search Club hijacker uses a lot of trickery. It hitches a ride with freeware and shareware. If you are not careful, you may install the parasite unintentionally. Whenever you are installing a program, pay close attention to the fine print. Developers often attach “bonuses” to the payload files of their programs. These bonuses can be deselected. Opt for the Advanced/Custom option in the Setup Wizard. Under it, you will be given the opportunity to deselect all unwanted programs. Keep in mind that you can deselect all extras and still install the program you originally planned to set up. Examine the list of programs carefully. Install only the apps you trust. Read the terms and conditions or research the programs online. If you spot anything out of the ordinary, abort the installation immediately. The Chrome Search Club hijacker tricked you once. Do not let other parasites fool you ever again. Always do your due diligence. Even a little extra caution goes a long, long way.

Why is this dangerous?

The Chrome Search Club hijacker is extremely annoying. It displays advertisements on every website you open. Websites that used to be ad-free are now covered in coupons, discounts and “great” deals. All these advertisements look great. Yet, they are not trustworthy. The Chrome Search Club utility has no verifying mechanism. Anyone willing to spend some money can use the hijacker to promote. All sorts of crooks do. These people are low-class criminals. They use the hijacker and its resources to target you with misleading and deceptive adverts. Do not trust a word you read online. If an offer looks too good to be true, it probably isn’t. With the hijacker on board, you are far more likely to be redirected to scam websites that to legitimate ones. If you are extremely unlucky, you may end up on an infected page. The hijacker shouldn’t remain on your computer. We have provided a manual removal guide below this article. If you prefer automated solutions, you can always use a trustworthy anti-virus application. You have options. Choose your removal method and act! The sooner, the better!

How to Remove Chrome Search Club virus

The Chrome Search Club infection is specifically designed to make money to its creators one way or another. The specialists from various antivirus companies like Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Norton, Avast, ESET, etc. advise that there is no harmless virus.

If you perform exactly the steps below you should be able to remove the Chrome Search Club 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.

STEP 1: Track down Chrome Search Club related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Chrome Search Club startup location

STEP 3: Delete Chrome Search Club traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Chrome Search Club related processes in the computer memory

• Open your Task Manager by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC keys simultaneously
• Carefully review all processes and stop the suspicious ones.

• Write down the file location for later reference.

Step 2: Locate Chrome Search Club startup location

Reveal Hidden Files

• Open any folder
• Click on “Organize” button
  
• Choose “Folder and Search Options”
• Select the “View” tab
• Select “Show hidden files and folders” option
• Uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”
• Click “Apply” and “OK” button

Clean Chrome Search Club virus from the windows registry

• Once the operating system loads press simultaneously the Windows Logo Button and the R key.

• A dialog box should open. Type “Regedit”

• WARNING! be very careful when editing the Microsoft Windows Registry as this may render the system broken.

Depending on your OS (x86 or x64) navigate to:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

• and delete the display Name: [RANDOM]

• Then open your explorer and navigate to: %appdata% folder and delete the malicious executable.

Clean your HOSTS file to avoid unwanted browser redirection

Navigate to %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/host

If you are hacked, there will be foreign IPs addresses connected to you at the bottom. Take a look below:

STEP 3 : Clean Chrome Search Club traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Chrome Search Club 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

Step 4: Undo the damage done by Chrome Search Club

This particular Virus may alter your DNS settings.

Attention! this can break your internet connection. Before you change your DNS settings to use Google Public DNS for Chrome Search Club, be sure to write down the current server addresses on a piece of paper.

To fix the damage done by the virus you need to do the following.

• Click the Windows Start button to open the Start Menu, type control panel in the search box and select Control Panel in the results displayed above.
• go to Network and Internet
• then Network and Sharing Center
• then Change Adapter Settings
• Right-click on your active internet connection and click properties. Under the Networking tab, find Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Left click on it and then click on properties. Both options should be automatic! By default it should be set to “Obtain an IP address automatically” and the second one to “Obtain DNS server address automatically!” If they are not just change them, however if you are part of a domain network you should contact your Domain Administrator to set these settings, otherwise the internet connection will break!!!

You must clean all your browser shortcuts as well. To do that you need to

• Right click on the shortcut of your favorite browser and then select properties.

• in the target field remove Chrome Search Club argument and then apply the changes.
• Repeat that with the shortcuts of your other browsers.
• Check your scheduled tasks to make sure the virus will not download itself again.

How to Permanently Remove Chrome Search Club Virus (automatic) Removal Guide

Please, have in mind that once you are infected with a single virus, it compromises your whole system or network and let all doors wide open for many other infections. 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.