My.looksmart.me Hijacker Removal

Can’t Remove My.looksmart.me hijacker virus? This page includes detailed My.looksmart.me Removal instructions!

My.looksmart.me is a malicious website. It’s not only obnoxious, but also dangerous. Consider it a harbinger of bad news. Should the page pop up on your screen, you’re in trouble. There’s a browser hijacker, lurking somewhere in the corners. And, you best believe, it’s wreaking havoc. The website showing up, is the infection’s way of revealing itself. It’s its grand announcement. Do yourself a favor, and heed it! Hijackers do NOT make for good company. They’re dreadful and damaging. The more you extend their stay, the worse your situation becomes. So, cut it as short as possible! Do yourself a favor, and remove it as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Its prompt removal earns you a peace of mind, and the gratitude of your future self. The My.looksmart.me page is a warning. Don’t discard it. Act on it! Once it takes over your screen, accept there’s a hijacker on your PC, forcing it on you. Then, do your best to locate its exact hiding place. And, delete it on discovery. It’s the best course of action, you can take, after seeing My.looksmart.me. Get rid of the hijacker ASAP. You won’t regret it.

How did I get infected with?

The My.looksmart.me page pops up, courtesy of a hijacker. But what about the hijacker itself? How do you imagine it ends up on your PC? It may come as a surprise, but it’s there, because of you. You agreed to install it. Oh, yes! Odds are, you have no memory of such an exchange. But it did happen! Recall it or not, it’s fact. The hijacker sought your permission on its admission. And, you gave it. If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t get stuck with the My.looksmart.me page, non-stop. Don’t beat yourself up too hard, though. Here’s the thing. Yes, the hijacker has to inquire whether you consent to its install. But don’t think it chooses the straightforward approach. If it outright popped up to ask your approval, you’d deny it, wouldn’t you? To avoid the risk of rejection, it turns to trickery. Yes, it does seek your consent. But it uses the old but gold means of infiltration to ask in the most covert way possible. That means, it hides behind corrupted sites or links. Or, spam email attachments, and freeware. It can even pretend to be a system or program update. Be vigilant! It’s up to you whether its invasion would be successful or not. Don’t make it easier! Since it preys on your carelessness, don’t provide it! Don’t give into gullibility, and haste. Don’t throw caution to the wind. Be extra thorough, and always do your due diligence. It goes a long way. Choose caution over carelessness. One helps to keep an infection-free PC. The other does the opposite.

Why is this dangerous?

After the hijacker invades your system, brace yourself. It causes quite the damage. The infection influences every aspect of your system. You first notice its touch with your browsing. Going online becomes an utter nightmare. If you so much as touch your browser, you get flooded with interference. The infection turns the My.looksmart.me page into your shadow. It traces your every move. Open a new tab? My.looksmart.me pops up to greet you. Type in a search? My.looksmart.me lurks among the results. You can’t do a single thing, without the website making an appearance. What’s worse, it’s not alone. The hijacker also bombards you with advertisements. Every type of ad there is, you see on your screen. Banner, in-text, pop-up. You can imagine what going online turns into. And, don’t think the incessant intrusions go unnoticed. Oh, no. They take their toll on your system. It begins to suffer frequent crashes. Your computer’s performance slows down to a crawl, as well. It’s pretty nightmarish. And, do you know what? This seems like a walk in the park, compared to the worst issue, you face. The absolute worst part, of having a hijacker, is the security issue. The tool threatens to steal and expose your private information. It follows instructions to spy on your browsing, and record everything you do. After it determines it has stolen enough data, it exposes it to the people behind it. Cyber criminals with questionable intentions. Not the kind of people, you can trust with your sensitive details, don’t you agree? Do what’s best for you, and your PC, and get rid of the infection ASAP. Don’t grant it the time it needs to make a mess of everything. Locate and remove the infection at once.

How to Remove My.looksmart.me virus

The My.looksmart.me 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 My.looksmart.me 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 My.looksmart.me related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate My.looksmart.me startup location

STEP 3: Delete My.looksmart.me traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down My.looksmart.me 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 My.looksmart.me 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 My.looksmart.me 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 My.looksmart.me traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the My.looksmart.me 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 My.looksmart.me

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 My.looksmart.me, 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 My.looksmart.me 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 My.looksmart.me 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.