“CHROMESEARCH.WIN” Malware Removal

Can’t Remove CHROMESEARCH.WIN hijacker virus? This page includes detailed CHROMESEARCH.WIN Removal instructions!

Is your web browser infested by the CHROMESEARCH.WIN website? No matter how hard you try, you simply cannot get rid of this intrusive page? We know how you feel. You have fallen victim to a nasty browser hijacker. The CHROMESEARCH.WIN hijacker is not a virus, but a malicious program — malware. This particular parasite imitates the design of Google Chrome’s homepage. The crooks are hoping to mislead the victims into believing that the chromesearch.win website is legit. But if you open the Terms of Use section of the website, you will not see Google LLC mentioned there. Take the appearance of this page as a giant, neon sign that an infection has made its way into your computer and act. The hijacker cannot be beneficial to you. No! This malware is programmed to generate ad-revenue for its owners. The hijacker bombards its victims with thousands and thousands of advertisements. These adverts, however, are not randomly selected. The hijacker monitors your online activities and bases the commercials on the collected data. Thus, if you enter “sneakers” into some search engine, the hijacker will display advertisements for sports shoes. And this can be quite hazardous. The collected information is too valuable. The hijacker will not simply delete it. This furtive utility sells this data to third parties. And believe us, there are many potential buyers. They range from desperate marketing agents to dangerous hackers. How would you feel if sensitive information about you gets exposed to the public? Not happy to say the least. The CHROMESEARCH.WIN hijacker exposes your privacy at giant risk. Luckily, we can help you remove this infection completely. We have provided a manual removal guide below this article. You can also download a trustworthy anti-virus app and delete this parasite automatically. You have options. Choose your malware removal method and clean your computer for good!

How did I get infected with?

The CHROMESEARCH.WIN hijacker is distributed via various methods. Torrents, software bundling, spam messages, malvertising, etc. These are just the most commonly used one. Truth is, crooks are imaginative, they always find new ways to reach more victims. A little extra caution, however, can keep your computer virus-free. Freeware, shareware and pirated copies of licensed software often become hosts for malware. Download your software from reliable sources only. When you start the setup process, pay close attention to the fine print. If an Advanced Installation is offered, select it. Under it, you will be presented with a list of all “bonus” programs that are about to be installed along the app you originally planned to set up. Make sure you know what you are giving your approval to. Read the Terms and Conditions/End User License Agreement. If you spot anything out of the ordinary, abort the installation. Keep in mind that you can deselect all extras and still install the program you originally planned to set up. The CHROMESEARCH.WIN hijacker tricked you once. Don’t repeat this mistake ever again. Always do your due diligence. A trustworthy anti-virus app can be of great aid in the fight against viruses.

Why is this dangerous?

The CHROMESEARCH.WIN hijacker is extremely intrusive. It forces dozens and dozens of commercials on you. These ads, however, are all potential threats. The hijacker is programmed to generate ad-revenue. It has no user protection mechanism. It doesn’t verify the ads it displays. Neither does it check who the advertisers behind them are. All sorts of crooks take advantage of such programs. As we already explained, the CHROMESEARCH.WIN utility collects information about you. It knows your preferences and fears. A capable trickster can use this information to target you with custom marketing campaigns. Or to redirect you to scam websites. Do not trust a word you read. Question everything. With the CHROMESEARCH.WIN hijacker on board you are very likely to be exposed to online frauds. Do not disclose personally identifiable information and credit card details. With the hijacker on board, such data can be stolen quite easily. Don’t risk it! Your best course of action is the immediate removal of the malware.

How to Remove CHROMESEARCH.WIN virus

The CHROMESEARCH.WIN 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 CHROMESEARCH.WIN 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 CHROMESEARCH.WIN related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate CHROMESEARCH.WIN startup location

STEP 3: Delete CHROMESEARCH.WIN traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down CHROMESEARCH.WIN 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 CHROMESEARCH.WIN 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 CHROMESEARCH.WIN 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 CHROMESEARCH.WIN traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the CHROMESEARCH.WIN 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 CHROMESEARCH.WIN

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 CHROMESEARCH.WIN, 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 CHROMESEARCH.WIN 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 CHROMESEARCH.WIN 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.