Go.Mail.Ru “Virus” Removal

Can’t Remove Go.Mail.Ru hijacker virus? This page includes detailed Go.Mail.Ru Removal instructions!

If you know Russian, the Go.Mail.Ru website may look like a good choice for a homepage. Yet, this website is in no way good for you or your computer. It is the face of a nasty browser hijacker. The Go.Mail.Ru hijacker is a malicious program that is installed on your computer. It has modified your browser’s settings. You have noticed that your preferable homepage is replaced. However, you may have missed one very important change. Your default search engine is also replaced. The Go.Mail.Ru hijacker uses aggressive marketing strategies to generate web traffic to some specific websites. The changes it caused to your PC are only a small part of its plan. The Go.Mail.Ru website is designed as an endless stream of news articles. It has a search bar for easy access to anything on the web and a personal inbox client. You can use the website to log into your other email inboxes and merge them into one. It sounds convenient. Yet, it is hazardous. Don’t give up your usernames and passwords. The Go.Mail.Ru hijacker is already collecting information about you. Don’t make its job easier. Oh, yes, that is right. The Go.Mail.Ru hijacker spies on you. It monitors your online activities and sells the collected data to third parties. Everything you do online is recorded. Which pages you view, favorite websites, search inquiries. Everything! With the hijacker on board, there is nothing private. Don’t put your privacy at risk. Follow our guide and remove this intruder manually. If you prefer automated solutions, you can always download a trustworthy anti-virus program. You have options. The sooner you clean your computer, the better!

How did I get infected with?

The Go.Mail.Ru website appeared as if out of nowhere. You have never seen this website before. Nothing even remotely connected to this website was ever displayed on your screen. This was the plan. The hijacker tricked you. This infection is a real computer program. It needs your approval to operate on your PC. And you provided it. There is no other way. Yet, you don’t remember doing it. This is to be expected. No one will infect their machine on purpose. The hijacker used trickery. It might have arrived as a bundled program to some freeware you downloaded off the web. The bundling method is quite common nowadays. Developers attach extra programs to the installation files of many free applications. These extras, more often than not, are malicious. Therefore, when installing a program, especially if it is a free one, opt for advanced setup wizard. It can be a tab or button. Use it. This process is not complicated. Under it, you will be presented with a list of all additional programs that are about to be installed. Be vigilant and careful. Don’t rush. Read the terms and conditions. If you spot anything out of the ordinary, abort the installation immediately. This is your computer. You are the one who is responsible for its security.

Why is this dangerous?

The Go.Mail.Ru hijacker jeopardizes your privacy. It spies on you and sells the data to third parties. Anyone can buy your information. Hackers included. Yes, there are hackers interested in your online habits. You won’t be so surprised once we tell you that the hijacker can steal your usernames, passwords and email addresses. Everything you do online is recorded. Everything. Thus, if you pay the bills online or make a purchase, the hijacker will record your billing address and credit card details. Can you imagine the consequences if a hacker buys this information? They will be devastating. Keeping this program on board is a bad idea. It can never be beneficial to you. Its removal, however, will be beneficial to your device. This malicious tool has never been meant as a light program. It consumes an enormous amount of computer resources. It runs on your CPU and uses a lot of RAM. Once you remove it, your PC will start to perform much faster. Don’t hesitate. Remove this intruder ASAP! If you decide to ignore the problem, however, hell will rise. The hijacker will bombard you with numerous advertisements. You will see ad banners on websites that used to be ad-free. Pop-up windows will force you to watch videos. You will hate every second of it. On top of that, you will be unable to find reliable information online. As we already mentioned, the hijacker has replaced your default search engine. The search results you are seeing appear to be provided by a well-known search engine. Yet, they are corrupted. The malicious utility injects fake entries among the results. These, most of the time, are ads. Yet, they are not marked as such. With the Go.Mail.Ru hijacker on board, you can never be sure which results are organic and which are promoted. Doing an objective research is an impossible task. Don’t put up with this. Remove the malicious app for good!

How to Remove Go.Mail.Ru virus

The Go.Mail.Ru 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 Go.Mail.Ru 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.

WARNING! Stopping the wrong file or deleting the wrong registry key may damage your system irreversibly.
If you are feeling not technical enough just use Spyhunter Professional Malware Removal Tool to deal with the problem!
>>Download SpyHunter – a Professional Remover.

Please, keep in mind that SpyHunter’s scanner tool is free. To remove the Go.Mail.Ru infection, you need to purchase its full version.

STEP 1: Track down Go.Mail.Ru related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Go.Mail.Ru startup location

STEP 3: Delete Go.Mail.Ru traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Go.Mail.Ru 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 Go.Mail.Ru 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 Go.Mail.Ru 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 Go.Mail.Ru traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Go.Mail.Ru 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 Go.Mail.Ru

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 Go.Mail.Ru, 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 Go.Mail.Ru 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 Go.Mail.Ru 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.